Choice by Jeremy

Choice by Jeremy - July 2014 Scholarship Essay

It has been said by some that, “Life is not a matter of chance. It is a matter of choice”. My childhood was defined by this idea of ‘chance’. Every little event as a kid seemed to have happened by pure luck. Every road I turned on, every person I met, the family I have been born into. Everything seemed to have happened by chance. That is what I thought, and that is what I had lived by: chance.

When I was born, I came as a whisper. I could not cry, I could not scream, I could not breathe. I was suffering from severe asthma that caused me to be in the Intensive Critical Care ward at the hospital. The doctors believed that I would die, and my chances of surviving were low, but I lived and grew. I was told I was a miracle, lucky to live, that I was fortunate to survive and beat the odds, and I grew up believing in those words.

Growing up as a child, I was house-ridden, always under constant surveillance, always cared for, always protected. I grew up surrounded by the four walls of my room, the sight from my window, the few stuff toys laid out on the floor, but in that room I lived many lives outside those white-plastered walls. I was able to read my way out that room for I had books. Since I could not explore the forest, I became a hiker. Since I could not kick a soccer ball, I read myself as a famous player scoring the game-winning goal. I just thought I was lucky to have books in my room.

As I grew up, my views didn’t change, not until 8th grade. I was a pretty nonchalant student, but my self-confidence in my own abilities was nonexistent. I was teased for being able to read well above my grade level. I was ridiculed for having a larger vocabulary. I was bullied. Though in that crisis, there was salvation, and that was Ms. Kelly. Ms. Kelly was in short, a second mother to me. She nurtured. She cared. She protected. When the other students would make fun of me, she would come and console me. She would guard me and let me eat lunch with her if need be. She made me feel safe with her and kept me in school. On some days, she and I would talk about anything to each other from the mundane to philosophy. One day I told her my views that life is just dictated by chance, and I remember her sentiments. With a loving smile, she told me that there is no such thing as chance when it comes to life. For every option that someone is given, he or she always has a choice. It does not matter how small or how few the choices are, it just matters on how one decides.

She reminded that, “If someone were not to take care of you as a child, you would’nt be here. If you didn’t read those books out of boredom as kid, you would not have the joy of learning as you do now. If I never bothered to protect you from those other students, I don’t what would you would do by now, Jeremy. We all have choices. It’s never just chance”.

I learned now from her that it is not what the chances are, it about taking a chance. It is not about what can happen, it is about how can I make that happen. I have the chance to do something, and do something great. Why waste it? Why start tomorrow, when you have the choice to do something now?