We are the product of our imaginations and the choices we have made along our journey of becoming someone. Whether it was a decision you regretted making or something you wish you could have said – you are who you are because of a choice.
It is a choice between letting the fire that you feel inside you when you make a mistake be the ignition to your strength or the very thing that consumes you. You have to choose.
Everything in life is a choice. What do you want to study at school, is college even for you, should you admit to something you did wrong, should you say “I love you” to your significant other – it all comes back to your choice.
Making a decision is never easy. There are so many factors to consider that sometimes it can be overwhelming, especially for someone who has anxiety or depression. We tend to worry about the smallest things that have really no significance to what we are even deciding on, making the decision process even harder than it needs to be.
With this being my final column as editor-in-chief, I would like to leave you with a few words of wisdom.
Just make a damn choice – stop overthinking it, and go with your gut decision.
A lot of seniors who are graduating and moving on to the next chapters of their lives are probably sitting back and going over all the choices they have made. Good or bad, they are probably running through them like a ViewMaster. Just flicking through each memory like it is happening again right before their eyes.
It is fun from time to time to sit and look into the past, and reminisce about the good times with friends – but the moment it turns into a self-doubt pity party, you need to get up, throw some cold water on your face and focus on the present.
What you did or didn’t do in the past, is in the past. You can’t Marty McFly it and go back in time to fix something that led to a result you didn’t like. Look what happened to him; he almost lost himself – literally.
All of your choices have created the person you see when you look in the mirror. If you don’t like what you see looking back at you, then do something in the present to change it. Do what needs to be done to ensure that you won’t make the same mistake again or force yourself to have the courage to say what you’re thinking so you won’t regret it five years from now.
Life is all about trial and error. As Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Find what works for you and keep building on it because one day everything will fall into place and what you see looking back at you in the mirror will be of your invention. Rome wasn’t built in a day and your life isn’t decided by one single choice. It is created by thousands of right and wrong decisions.
As every book has multiple characters, your life story does as well. The only difference is you get to decide who is in it.
So make the damn decision and be the author of your own character. That is, at least, what I choose to do for my next chapter.
What will you choose? Who do you want to be? Your future is a blank canvas – create your own Mona Lisa.
Or don’t. But the decision is up to you.

BECKY HILKER
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