Words To Live By

When I was a kid in the early 80s, Browns Valley Elementary school had a specific sentence they assigned to all transgressors as punishment. Not the standard, "I will not tell lies" or "I will remember to hand in my homework on time." No, the "sentence" we had to write was actually three sentences, and it went like this:

Life is a series of choices. The choice I have made has brought with it the consequence of writing these sentences. Maybe next time I will make a different choice.

Somewhere around the fifth grade, I wrote this sentence enough times that it is indeliably engraved on my brain. It's as much a part of the way I see the world as "suck it up" or "fake it 'til you make it," the only two other sayings that really get close to my life philosophy. I've been thinking of it a lot lately, as issues of personal responsiblity and choice affect me and those I love. I think what I really like about this sentence is the idea that there is always a next time, and the possiblity of a different choice. I used to write "better choice" because it was three letters shorter and when you're handwriting two hundred sentences, that matters...but now that I've grown, I think I prefer "different" after all.

*raises glass*

Here's to making choices that take us to where we want to be.