Making Life's Choices

“It is your choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities” - Anyone

familiar with the Harry Potter saga would definitely be aware of this advice given by Dumbledore to Harry.

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The above quote had been close to my heart ever since I first read it. Not only for Harry in the wizarding world,

it holds a deeper meaning that can be attributed to our everyday ordinary human lives as well.

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In our society, we are made to believe that we have only few major life choices to make in the course of our lifetime.

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But if I sit back and reflect, I realize one makes innumerable amount of choices every waking moment of our lives. We may not realize the magnitude or the consequences of our choices – but indeed they drive how the world functions.

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When we choose not to hire a woman although she is qualified because of the inherent biases that reside inside us – we widen the gender gap in the society.

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When we choose to forward that bigoted religious message to our Whatsapp groups , we empower the divisive forces & we plant a little more hatred in the world.

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When we choose to behave unkindly to those who we think are of lesser social stature than us, we make the world a little more inhumane

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When we choose to lie to our loved ones – we put out a little more doubt into an already confused world.

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The sum total of all the choices we make as an individual, becomes the driving force of our society & the base of our cultures in the years to come.

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The number of choices available to every one of us differs depending on a variety of factors - socio-economic conditions, educational background, the exposure, place of origin etc. We should be aware that – more the number of choices we can make, the more entitled we are & hence hold a high responsibility towards making the right one.

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Whatever may be our available choices, being aware that every single decision of ours has an impact on the functioning of the world, hopefully would make us all choose wiser.

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If we begin to realize the enormity of the decision we have in our hands, we would also teach our children to make better choices. Our education system nor our social setup has prepared us to face the plethora of choices that our life throws at us once we embrace adulthood.

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Enabling our future generation to make informed choices should be the top most priority for all of us. In our ability to choose , rests the future of our world.