MountainWings       A MountainWings Moment

#8266              Wings Over The Mountains of Life

Choose Wisely
==========

I have been subscribed to MountainWings for about six months
now. It's funny; the whole thing was a complete fluke.

I'm guessing that someone typed in their e-mail address wrong or
something because beforehand, I had only received the occasional
one (forwarded from my aunt). Now I am saving special e-mails,
such as the ones I receive from MountainWings every day, in a
separate file.

Almost every time I read a new daily message, the writer in me
is spurred on to write a reply. Yet, I never did. Not that the
stories were not incredibly effective in many ways, (even the
ones about procrastination) but for some reason I thought that I
could always do it tomorrow.

Now in all truth I could, but did I? No. I was too busy.
Too busy starting high school.
Too busy with extra-curricular activities.
Too busy with life.
Too busy to do something that deep down, I know is important to
me. So why do I finally take the time? Why now?
Because today a speaker came to my school.

She told a story, but in and around it, she told us some very
important things that I hope to always remember. She started
off by saying that she wasn't about to tell us what to do with
our lives. That we have enough people nagging us already.

She justified this by putting an obvious truth in a unique
perspective, "They say these things so that you will grow old
like them." Most were at least a little confused at first, but
she quickly explained what she meant; that they wanted us to all
enjoy life without it being cut short by some bad choices.

The story continued.

By the end of the assembly, many (including myself) had watery
eyes and a new perspective on certain things in life. Between
her jokes and her hopes that we will take her suggestion (such
as the 4 Choices), she told the story of how her twin sister
died one day after their eighteenth birthdays. It was all
because of a choice her sister had made in how to get home.

This speaker has been telling her story all over the world
for years, and you can tell because she made her point in such a
strong way.

I'm writing this today instead of "tomorrow" because if I make a
bad choice, just one little stupid thing I normally don't even
think about, I might not have tomorrow.

Cara, the speaker, said at the end that she would be happy if
even just one person walked away having discovered something.
But the thing that stuck with me was that she said that she
would most likely never know for sure if anyone did. After all,
people only hear about those who died, not those who made a
different choice and lived because of it and like she said at
the beginning, she wasn't telling us what to do, see was giving
suggestions on how to make good choices.

I guess I'm writing this not only to be something other than
'too busy,' but also because there is just that chance that this
speaker might read this and know that I walked out of that
gymnasium with quite a few things in my head that could very
easily save the lives of myself and others.

I was also emotionally drained because it takes only one stupid,
bad choice. Sure, I knew that already, but it only sunk in as I
was sitting in the school gym listening to a lady tell us that.

Now I know this may sound corny, everyone has the freedom to
choose but along with that freedom comes the responsibility to
choose wisely and the consequences if you don't.

Please choose wisely.

~A MountainWings Original by subscriber Nicole Vanderwall~
Canada


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