Everyday Canvas

Life Choices

Prompt: "Why can't I try on different lives, like dresses, to see which one fits me and is most becoming?" Sylvia Plath.
Do you ever feel like this? Write about it.

===============

Not anymore. Indecisiveness is not one of my many vices; however, I used to feel like that when I was nineteen or twenty or so, at the time my life’s path was iffy and unknown to me. After some bumps and stumbles, I accepted going where my best decisions and choices took me. Sylvia Plath, as a poet, can say things like trying on different lives, but we live life, not try it on.

Trying on lives, as if dresses, even wishing to do that seems like a waste of time to me. A different attitude should correct this kind of an uncertainty. We don’t have too much time on this earth and, if we spend it with empty wishes and indecisiveness, we don’t leave ourselves enough time to enjoy life. I think making sensible, doable, and timely decisions in life is not only practical but also is brave.

When it comes to living, this world offers us so many ways to be brave. One way can be going after something bigger than oneself or doing something extraordinary for someone else. It could also be living through joys and pains while hoping for a better life. Yet another one of them is making choices and following through without looking back. I guess I was brave with my choices. I didn’t hesitate and just followed through. I also never dallied with or believed in regrets or remorse, either.

I know someone who is extremely picky with her choices. She can’t even pick a pair of shoes without having a nervous breakdown. Yet, in her life, her choices ended in misery no matter how much and how carefully she picked jobs, men, or anything else. Still, if she were happy with her choices, I wouldn’t feel bad for her for it would mean that she was accepting her choices regardless of their results, but she isn’t happy either. Come to think of it, neither was Sylvia Plath.