Choices
Pedro P.
Represa, CA
Growing up I thought options were limited for me to choose from. I was raised in a low income area, section-eight house by a single mother with little parenting skills. She was learning about life at a young age, trying to figure out how to survive on her own. I did not make matters easier for her because life can be confusing with no compass to go off of. As I grow older, I realize how ignorant I was to the choices I made. I wanted the “good things” in life because I saw how most of my friends had the latest styles. Since my mom couldn’t provide much, I began to steal at the age of thirteen. Choices became more lax, the faster I came up on things, the more I wanted. What was fun for me cost me ¼ of my life.
Do I sit here and complain? No! Because I knew right from wrong! There’s a saying that goes, “For every obstacle there is a solution.” Even though I minimized my options with a single action, I now know I can open up my opportunities with a single reaction by thinking positive! I spend my time studying and learning new things about the world and art. It is fascinating to explore unlimited choices. I can imagine freedom being choices not options! Looking back I did not think things through. It’s a regret to spend time imagining and exploring history only in T.V. and books when one could use the imagination to figure out to travel off and adventure the world to make history, see new things, and experience different cultures. It’s never too late but for now it is a goal to survive my incarceration.
It is a blessing to have someone who cares for you because for as long as I’ve been down, the only ones that have shown me love are those who I did wrong - my family. Without judgement they have supported me through the hardships. Of all the mistakes I’ve made, the biggest one was limiting myself of my choices, believing I had few options. If anything to be taken from me is this, I’ve learned the options given from any circumstance aren’t the choices we only have to take. Our choice our free will to choose to stand for what one believes is right and worth risking and taking because at the front of the forked road to the end we create our own destinies by the will of our mind to choose!