Life is about Choices

I figured to start my blog that I would talk about my philosophy on life, and everything that comes with it. It is very simple, everything is a choice.

I don't like it when people complain about having to do something and not being able to change it. There are exceptions, like when you give someone your word that you'll do something, you need to follow through on it. But for the most part people control what they do. They may think that people have control over them and "let" them do things, but they're simply in the wrong mindset.

One example is when people graduate high school. Everyone is sad, and walk around saying how they'll never see these people again. In today's world with cell phones, internet, etc...if you don't see someone for the rest of your life it was YOU'RE choice. You simply didn't put the effort forth to reach out to that person and stay in contact with them.

When it comes down to it, there is only one person that controls their actions....and that's themselves.

The trick of the game of life is trying to make the right choices to enable a person to follow a path to set them up where they'd like to be farther down the line.

I've made many choices that have put me in the spot that I am today. And many of those choices were positively influenced by my parents.

The first choices that I remember making were in Jr. High and High School, when I chose to be a member of Boy Scouts and make my way up the ranks and become an Eagle Scout. This has opened a lot of doors to me, and given me opportunities that I wouldn't have had otherwise. I was extremely surprised when I got into college and met a lot of other male leaders on campus who were also Eagle Scouts. That trend also continued as I interviewed for full time positions. Every single recruiter asked me what my Eagle Scout project was and what I learned from it. So something I had done six years earlier in my life ended up being a huge conversation starter in job interviews, and eventually led to many job offers.

Another choice I made was the classes I took in High School. I chose to take all the science, math, and foreign language classes that I could so that I'd get a head start on college. I was lucky enough to have my high school send me to the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) to take college courses at no cost to myself and expose me to the huge differences between high school and college classes. This choice set me up to be very successful in college and graduate quicker than most of my classmates. One of the drawbacks though was that I didn't get to take any shop or art classes, which would have helped me be more well rounded and more able to actually work with making parts. This shows that there are pros and cons to every choice a person makes.