Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Decisions VS Circumstances (Warning, long post!)

P.S. This post is dedicated to my buddies who have hard lives. MAKE A DECISION TODAY.

I slogged my body along the dark pathways next to the roads, as i silently contemplated my feelings. Being a musician, i am very prone to being emotional at the little things that happen. The hunger in my stomach is a harsh reminder of the circumstances i face. Hunger does many things to a man - it makes him angry, it makes him sad, it makes him grouchy, it makes him mad. Bottom line he just gets EMO okay?

yeah so i starve on a regular basis. Story of my life. Once i even saw a piece of fish that someone had left on the floor. It was half eaten but i actually asked myself if i wanted to pick it up and eat it! The next moment i was like "EWW! DUDE ARE YOU CRAZY!?" - lol. So what do i do? Just sit back and complain about life? Lemme share with you a story i heard.

In a senior journalism class the students were tasked with an assignment - to go interview someone big and famous. Many said they'd do celebrities, others rich people. But this journalist thought all that was too common. He thought he'd interview someone on the verge of dying.

So he finally decided on interviewing someone of death row. He went over to the prison and asked to interview one of the prisoners. The prison warden guided the journalist to a dark cell where this prisoner sat handcuffed. The journalist walked in.

"So what did you do to get the death sentence?" - the journalist asked.
"Oh i did lots of things! I've raped girls, done drugs, you know.." - the prisoner was so full of himself as he said it.
"You don't feel any remorse?"
"No."

Now the journalist got a little frustrated with the prisoner at this point. He then said. "I don't get it. You spent your whole life doing things that put you in prison. Don't you know what you could have achieved in your life? You spent all those wasted years and feel no remorse?"
The prisoner got defensive and said "I have no other choice! My family is like that! My dad's a drug dealer and my mom's a prostitute!"

The journalist decided to end the interview there and walked out of the cell. He asked the warden if anyone had come to visit the prisoner. No one did. So he asked if he had any relatives he could talk to. The warden gave him the address and number of the prisoner's brother.

So the journalist flew over to the state and stood in front of the building where the address was. It was a tall bank. "Hmm.. his brother must be a cleaner here." - He thought. He walked in and approached the security counter. "Excuse me.. i have an appointment with this person."
The guard stared at the man and asked, "Are you sure you've got an appointment with him?"

"yes of course, i'm sure."

The guard went over and made a phone call. He came back and was suddenly very polite to the journalist. "Right this way sir. He is waiting for you."

They entered the lift and the journalist noticed the building was 70 floors high. When he past the 20th floor the journalist was thinking "wow, he's working as a staff in this company..."

but then they past the 50th floor. "Wow, he must be some senior ranked staff here..."

when they reached the 70th floor, the journalist was shocked. "70th floor???" He walked out expecting to see the president of the bank. And right he was. There, sitting in his posh office, was the president of the bank, and he looked exactly like the man in the prison cell! Totally shocked, he exclaimed "You like the man i interviewed in the prison cell!"

"Haha... of course! We're twin brothers afterall. How's my brother? I heard he's being sentenced?"

"But... your brother is in the prison cell and you are here as the head of a bank?" the journalist asked, though the reply that came made the journalist speechless.

"I have no other choice! My dad's a drug dealer and my mom's a prostitute!"

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in the end its all about choices, not the circumstances you are in. what i want to bring across is that its about your DECISION not your CIRCUMSTANCES.

Now as we foster in the new year, just remember not to let your circumstances stop you from making good decisions. Make a decision to be the change you want to see in your life.

Happy 2009 to ya!~

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