There is this great episode of The West Wing. Here is the premise....
It includes flashbacks outlining the history of Jed Bartlet (the President) and Mrs. Landingham (his secretary). In one of the flashbacks, Jed is a young boy attending a private school at which his father is the headmaster. Mrs. Landingham is his father's secretary. She approaches Jed with a project. The school is biased in its pay to men verses women. She brings facts and figures to Jed so he can go to his father. He argues a little with her. And Mrs. Landingham's final reply is: "If you don't confront the issue because you don't think it's true or unjust, then I respect that. But if you don't do it because you are scared, then Jed, i don't even want to know you." At the end of the episode (in current time), Jed and Mrs. Landingham have a similar conversation about Jed rerunning for his second term. She says, "If you really don't want to do it, then I respect that. But if you are not rerunning because its too hard, then Jed, I don't even want to know you."
I am blogging about a TV show because it applies greatly to my current life situation, as well as the lives of many of my friends. We seem to all reside in a common time in our lives. We are all trying to make decisions about what we want, where we want to go, how we're going to get there. I have a problem with making decisions already: what I want to wear, where I want to go to dinner, which road should I take during rush hour. However, the answers to the decisions that we are all facing right now aren't simply found on a restaurant menu; they are--at the risk of sounding clique--life changing.
I struggled for a long time between remaining at the University of Utah for graduate school or adventuring to the University of Maryland. My decision was made complicated by the opportunity of financial aid in Utah and the extreme debt I would encounter in Maryland. My friends and family are in Utah, I have no one in Maryland. I know Salt Lake City; I have connections; I know where I am going and how to get places; I know the campus and where I would live. In Maryland, I would start from the bottom and the beginning all over again. But despite all those things, I knew that Maryland would offer me the better opportunities, the better future, and the better education. So last night I gave my official notice of acceptance to the University of Maryland. If I chose to go to the University of Utah, it would not have been because I truly believed it was the right place for me to be; if I declined Maryland, it would be because it would be too hard and I was scared. We are all grown up and the answers to our decisions shouldn't be the easy choice anymore.
So to all my friends who are struggling, just like me; to all my friends who are currently mid-choice; and to all my friends who know deep down what they really want:
"If you are choosing a direction because you truly don't believe in the alternative, then I respect that. But if you are walking away from what you really want because you are scared or its too hard, then I don't even want to know you."
Showing posts with label Choices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Choices. Show all posts
Friday, April 10, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Stray From the "Plans"
I just got back to Salt Lake City from my weekend holiday in St. George. I shouldn't be surprised that nothing happens as you expect. Your plans aren't always what God has in mind for you. This is certain: sometimes you don't get what you want and the life that follows is determined by how you handle the unexpected, the upsets, and the obstacles you encounter on the way to accomplishing your "plans."
Stephanie, Lora, and I had planned to leave the city at 6:00pm so we wouldn't have to miss class and still arrive in St. George at a somewhat decent hour. Before leaving, I stopped to fill up with gas. I happened to check the air pressure in the tires to discover that they were incredibly low. Unfortunately the air pump at the station was broken and instead of putting in air, it continued to suck air out of the tires. I then drove to a second gas station, to a second air pump, and Stephanie and I succeeded in filling up the tires.
Finally, we reached I 15 at 7:00 and started our journey south. Once we reached Provo, it started to snow heavily and we realized that my windshield wipers had frozen (probably from sitting weeks in the cold in the campus parking lot) and were now crumbling apart and obviously not doing their job of "wiping." So as I haunched over in my car and peered through the small portion of glass that was somewhat clear because of the defroster, I pulled off at the next available exit where we got out of the car and manually wiped off the windshield.
Back on the highway, we decided that we wouldn't make it without windshield wipers so we decided to pull over at a Flying J to buy some. In the dark and snow and with a blurry vision, I thought I was turning into the Flying J parking lot, but instead I found myself on the interstate ramp that took us back north. Once your on those things, it is, of course, impossible and dangerous to get off so we had to drive all the way to the previous exit where we had just stopped to wipe off the window. We turned around, and proceed back south, in order to try pulling into the Flying J one more time. This time we made it and I purchased two wiper blades. Stephanie basically froze off her fingers trying to figure out how to replace the old for the new (after we determined that this plan was better than the alternative of asking one of the rustic-looking truckers for assistance). But finally, the new wipers were securely fashened and we were back on our way. An hour later, we ran out of windshield wiper fluid, luckily patches of rain and snow could be used as a substitute. And when percipitation was absent, Stephanie was commissioned to stick her arm out the window of the moving vehicle and throw water on the window from the bottles we had packed and planned to drink.
Driving at 60 miles per hour due to whether conditions and out of fear produced by the millions of vehicles we passed that had slide off the road, we reached Beaver around 10 o'clock. To our luck, authorities there had closed I15 because 20 cars and 2 semis had collided just a few hours earlier. We were rerouted on side roads that took us to Minersville and through some back mountains. I am positive the drive would have been beautiful in the light. We reached this one area where the clouds became a faint mist and the moon was able to silhouette the mountains and the fog that crept near the fields in the distance. For some time, it seemed as if we were driving through the English Moores. Anyway, at 1 am we finally reached the comfort of our bed in St. George.
Despite the conditions, we had an amazing time. We decided to have fun with whatever it was that would come our way and we did. We had so much fun and I believe that it is those kind of things that an individual remembers forever because it didn't go as planned.
You have two choices: you can either choose be happy with what comes or you can sulk and dwell on what didn't happen or what you didn't get. Most of the time if you choose to look at the situation differently, you end up getting a lot more than what you originally hoped or planned for.
Stephanie, Lora, and I had planned to leave the city at 6:00pm so we wouldn't have to miss class and still arrive in St. George at a somewhat decent hour. Before leaving, I stopped to fill up with gas. I happened to check the air pressure in the tires to discover that they were incredibly low. Unfortunately the air pump at the station was broken and instead of putting in air, it continued to suck air out of the tires. I then drove to a second gas station, to a second air pump, and Stephanie and I succeeded in filling up the tires.
Finally, we reached I 15 at 7:00 and started our journey south. Once we reached Provo, it started to snow heavily and we realized that my windshield wipers had frozen (probably from sitting weeks in the cold in the campus parking lot) and were now crumbling apart and obviously not doing their job of "wiping." So as I haunched over in my car and peered through the small portion of glass that was somewhat clear because of the defroster, I pulled off at the next available exit where we got out of the car and manually wiped off the windshield.
Back on the highway, we decided that we wouldn't make it without windshield wipers so we decided to pull over at a Flying J to buy some. In the dark and snow and with a blurry vision, I thought I was turning into the Flying J parking lot, but instead I found myself on the interstate ramp that took us back north. Once your on those things, it is, of course, impossible and dangerous to get off so we had to drive all the way to the previous exit where we had just stopped to wipe off the window. We turned around, and proceed back south, in order to try pulling into the Flying J one more time. This time we made it and I purchased two wiper blades. Stephanie basically froze off her fingers trying to figure out how to replace the old for the new (after we determined that this plan was better than the alternative of asking one of the rustic-looking truckers for assistance). But finally, the new wipers were securely fashened and we were back on our way. An hour later, we ran out of windshield wiper fluid, luckily patches of rain and snow could be used as a substitute. And when percipitation was absent, Stephanie was commissioned to stick her arm out the window of the moving vehicle and throw water on the window from the bottles we had packed and planned to drink.
Driving at 60 miles per hour due to whether conditions and out of fear produced by the millions of vehicles we passed that had slide off the road, we reached Beaver around 10 o'clock. To our luck, authorities there had closed I15 because 20 cars and 2 semis had collided just a few hours earlier. We were rerouted on side roads that took us to Minersville and through some back mountains. I am positive the drive would have been beautiful in the light. We reached this one area where the clouds became a faint mist and the moon was able to silhouette the mountains and the fog that crept near the fields in the distance. For some time, it seemed as if we were driving through the English Moores. Anyway, at 1 am we finally reached the comfort of our bed in St. George.
Despite the conditions, we had an amazing time. We decided to have fun with whatever it was that would come our way and we did. We had so much fun and I believe that it is those kind of things that an individual remembers forever because it didn't go as planned.
You have two choices: you can either choose be happy with what comes or you can sulk and dwell on what didn't happen or what you didn't get. Most of the time if you choose to look at the situation differently, you end up getting a lot more than what you originally hoped or planned for.
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