by August Aurora James

Created on: April 29, 2008   Last Updated: July 23, 2010

   Possibly the most inspiring words I had ever heard or ever will hear in my life were quite simple; though unassuming comments always did strike me much more than did inflated claims. Regardless, they changed my life and the way I perceived luck, fate, choice, and their relationship with each other. These were the words that I heard a very wise person once say: "You can be whoever you CHOOSE to be."

   It is not important who said these words, because in all honesty, I can't even say I recall. It was their importance, and heaviness; the possibilities they bore. I'd heard many comments on the subject, comments meant to be inspirational, things like "You can be whoever you want to be," or "You will only become what you limit yourself to become." But these sayings did not affect me. Something about them felt false. They felt too easy.  That word, "want," as in, you can become who you want to become, felt discouraging, far away, fairy-tale like. Wouldn't it be great if life were that simple?  That whatever it is that we "want," we receive? "Choose," however, was something that I had not heard before. "Choose" was realistic, it was within reach. After all, don't we all possess the power of choice? Choice is something that we control, and if who we are is a choice, then who we become is also something that we can control. This simple revelation struck me unbelievably.

   Once trapped within a cycle of habit or behavior, one feels trapped within themselves, trapped by tendencies, vices, personalities, self-images-trapped by who they've found themselves to become. Sometimes the concept of self-improvement is a bit off-putting because it insinuates that you aren't happy with who you currently are, and that is more than most are willing to admit. But these words, "You can be whoever you choose to be," changed everything. They said in choosing who you want to be, you weren't abandoning who you already were. They said that every single day was another chance to strive to become who you, in your own mind, saw yourself as, and that striving to become this person was not an act against authenticity, but exactly the opposite: an act that was positive, hopeful, and proactive, the very essence and the purpose of life.

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