by Sofia SanPasquale

Created on: January 04, 2007   Last Updated: January 16, 2007

Sometimes it is best to learn things the hard way. The lessons you learn through mistakes are the ones you will never forget. And are there even "bad choices" to begin with? Or are some alternatives simply better than others? Sometimes we are misinformed, or ignorant altogether; thus there can be no way for us to even know if what we are doing is the so-called "right thing." We do the best with what we have, and that is all anyone can ask.

It can be quite difficult to make a good choice if the choices aren't clear to begin with. Like being stuck between a rock and a hard place, as the saying goes, sometimes there isn't an easy answer to a question. I think war is an adequate example of this. War isn't a personal decision (in general, not meaning enlisting and such), but is it ever a good decision to go to war? People will die, but what would be the consequences of not going to war instead? Are personal freedoms at stake, justice, democracy? Going to war might be a bad choice, but sitting around doing nothing while human rights are being violated is a worse one.

There are also times when frustration and anger come into play. Human emotions are powerful things, love being a good one, hate, obviously, being a bad one, to be simple about it. Actions driven by hate, frustration, and anger rarely have positive effects, and therefore may fall under the category of 'bad choices.' Things done and words said in the heat of the moment often lead to regrets; everyone has had occasions where they let their emotions get the best of them, and end up eating their words. Human nature includes fallibility, and that is a fact of life. We all make mistakes and say things we wish we hadn't; forgiveness is a beautiful thing.

Who's judging, anyway? We fall down, we pick ourselves up again, we deal with the consequences, at least the mature do. That bad choice might not be so bad in the end after all, it might get buried in the flurry of life, or it might turn out to be a good thing. Many people break up with a significant other, and mourn the loss, only to find their soul mate later on. At the time of the split, ending the relationship seems like the end of the world, and you feel like you'll never love again. Time passes, and someone comes along, you trip and fall in love all over again. Was the initial break up a bad choice? At the time it might have been, but further down the road, it turned out to not be such a bad thing.

Life is so rarely black and white, and extenuating circumstances can apply to almost everything. Making a mistake is not exactly the same as making a bad choice, because making a mistake implies that the maker realizes the error, albeit too late, and a bad choice is subject to perspective. Everyone has their own criteria of what constitutes a 'bad choice,' and the individual reasons for those choices are as numerous as there are people in the world making them.

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