Good & Bad Choices

This morning I went to the apartment sales office to consult with the sales person about how to pay for the property taxes for the apartment my family purchased a couple of months ago.

The office is about 30 minute walk from home. It was raining, but I still decided to walk there since I haven't gone outside for several days already. Following the street I live on and going straight, you will see a sign that tells you to turn left to reach the office. I have followed the sign before, but this time I thought maybe I could just go straight and turn left later, and there will be the office. It might actually be a short cut. Not knowing that this would take me as far as it can get from the sales office.

It was raining pretty hard, and there were few people and cars on the street. This area used to be a rural area outside of the city and some family was doing garbage collecting business there, and the whole street stunk badly. I tried to keep my eyes away from the garbage site. At the beginning, I thought I would soon see a road to be able to turn left, but I was so wrong. I had to walk straight in the rain for at least good 15 minutes before I saw the street lead me to the right direction. When I was finally on the road leading to the office, it was much more like a high way (it probably is) on which huge trucks and buses were running with high speed. There was no sidewalk. But there was no turning back, I had to walk in the rain, on top of the curb, and sometimes in the mud just to avoid water splash I get when a truck passed by. But when I was very close to the destination, a big truck finally splashed dirt water all over my body and my face. That was as bad as the day could get.

Along the way going to the sales office, I kept thinking that this way was just like how my life turned out. Good people have given me valuable advice, but I never listened. I always thought I was right, and I always chose to proceed with directions that either led me to nowhere or were full of hardships. How could I be so stubborn and closed-minded? How could I be so idiotic? I realized it was time that I took wise advice and do something right for myself. The exploring time should be over now. Time to get something solid for my life.

I also remembered once I read somewhere saying that personality determines fate. I couldn't agree more. It's our personality that leads us to the choices we make in our life. I somehow unconciously think that I'm smarter than other people. That's why I wouldn't listen to others and choose to walk a different way. That's why I didn't follow the big fat sign telling me the direction to the sales office. Life is cynical...

The good comes with the bad, and vice versa. The sales office was distributing a box of grapes to all of their buyers today. So I got one box as well. Despite how it turned out today, the grapes tasted really nice. (^ - ^)