I believe that depending on one’s beliefs, morals, and upbringing can determine what they believe is good or bad. What they have been told their entire lives and how the environment that they were raised in influenced what they believe in to be good or bad. The other day, some of my friends and I discussed what we believed in what was right and wrong, good or bad. Though we all had many different perspectives on what is good or bad, we all agreed that how one perceives one or the other is majorly based upon his or her upbringing. Through their home, friends, and environment can heavily influence how anyone views the world. Above all else, the one that you may admire the most can have the power to change your entire way of thinking. Whatever your role model may say or do can make you believe that is how you should live your life.
Throughout my life my parents have taught me that violence does not solve anything, it just makes the problem worse. To this day I continue to follow this belief. However, there was one incident in high school where I questioned this belief. I had just been eating my lunch with some of my boys when this other guy comes out of nowhere and says, “hey, you’re sitting in my seat.” I turned around and saw that it was this guy named Pierre. Everyone knew him in the school as the 50 Cent wannabee. No one really liked him because he was the kind of person who seemed like he would stab his friends in the back if it were to benefit him. Anyways, I replied by saying, “There’re plenty of other seats around and I was here first”. He must have not heard me and he answered, “yeah but that’s my seat” this time in a more threatening voice. I could already see where this was headed by the way everyone else was watching us, waiting for my response. I already knew this guy couldn’t fight at all due to his reputation as being one of the worst fighters in the school. He, however, obviously didn’t think so and challenged me. Little did he know that at that time I was a brown belt in Taekwondo. I then had a decision to make. Do I stay in my seat knowing he will most likely fight me and cause him further embarrassment after beating him up? Or do I leave the table knowing that would be the “punk” way out. I decided to be the more mature one and moved from my seat. He however wanted more and forcefully pushed me out. It was then that I put everything else aside and back-kicked him in his throat. The noise he made after that didn’t sound too pleasant. I looked at him lying on the table gasping for air and I told him, “you did this to yourself” I then moved to a different seat and that was that.
My belief was to not harm others when there are other alternatives. I choose the one that would cause me embarrassment, accepting the fact that this was the good choice. However in the end, the good choice was defending myself which prior to him putting his hands on me was the bad choice. This leads me to conclude my belief that people live their lives bound by what they accept to be right or wrong, that’s how they determine what is good or bad.