More Than a Saying

The questions of everyday life don’t always have easy answers. Each day the bombardment of choices and answers that control our lives assail us from every turn, but how we respond to these choices shapes who we are, and what we become as a person. This is why I believe that doing the right thing is not just a phrase that parents, teachers, and coaches spout at you when they want you to behave; to me it means literally what it says “do the right thing.” Yesterday after a long three hours of soul crushing exercise I drug myself into my car, exhausted. I threw my things in the back, sat down in the drivers seat and began my journey home. When I reached the first stoplight I spotted one of my younger teammates who was equally exhausted and carrying a heavy backpack trudging on towards his destination. Something clicked in my head and I realized that this boy was going to walk all the way across town. I slowed down and told him to hop in. After a small car ride, I pulled up to his house; he was thrilled to have gotten a ride, and thanked me profusely. I was a little annoyed at the time, but thinking back on it I realize that it may have been out of my way, it may have been an inconvenience, but it was the right thing to do. When I think back on my life from my deathbed, when I am an grey and shriveling old man I don’t want to think about all the bad choices I made, I want to think about how I was a good person who would go out of their way to give people rides or didn’t go to parties with drugs and alcohol. Life throws choices like these at us all the time, day after day we receive them , but when life presents challenges, it’s not always easy to do the right thing; realizing and acting upon these challenges are how we define ourselves as people who always strive to do the right thing.