verbose

A while ago a friend and I were talking and she asked if I could describe my life philosophy with just one word. One word, encapsulating my whole outlook on life? Easier said than done, I told her. It's not going to be easy coming up with such a word and for it to be a totally kick-ass word at the same time. Turns out she already had her word, though. And, I have to admit, it is a pretty cool word: kismet.

Okay, okay.. it's a pretty frickin' awesome word actually. Kismet, of course, is derived from the Farsi word qismat which basically means fate or destiny (yes, kind of how Luke having to kill his dad was kismet). Anyways my friend believes everything really does happen for a reason, and that it's all happening according to the Grand Ole' Scheme of Things. This way, she says, she doesn't let things affect her too much since she reckons whatever happens was already pre-destined to happen anyway.. and she leads a pretty content life. I guess it does kind of makes sense, though. Alas, our intrepid blogger had still yet to find such a word, so I asked my friend to give me a week or so and I'd get back to her. Hey, it's my life philosophy we're talking about, I wasn't about to come up with my word on a whim!

I asked another friend the same question, and she came up with her word pretty quickly: excess. She explained that it was because she kind of did almost everything in excess, like sleep, spend, eat.. I actually still don't know if she was being funny or not. I was getting worried. Did other people's Words come this easily to them? Maybe I won't ever find my Word! No, this is ridiculous, you can't describe whole philosophies or trains of thought with a single word. No! I'm not going to concede and admit defeat. I'm as articulate and intelligent as the next person, if you can do it so can I, so there! Nyeah! See, and mature too.

So a week later I got back to her with my Word. It just came to me one day when I was having a hard time choosing where to have dinner. It's just a normal everyday word though, but I feel it perfectly describes how I feel about life: choice. I know, I know.. it does seem a bit underwhelming taken out of context. But it's not just about choosing where to have your meals, or what to wear with which pair of shoes. I'm talking about freedom of choice. As in free will (which was my original choice but that's two words), as opposed to fate. I believe all of us have the freedom of choice to do whatever we want. We make choices everyday, some easy, some hard, some seemingly impossible, some bad, some good.. and I feel that life is all about making choices. We learn from the bad choices we make and we benefit from the good ones. I've always lived my life doing whatever the hell I choose to, for better or worse. I don't really like not being able to have the freedom to choose what I want to do. I don't know, maybe it's not for everyone.. maybe some people like their choices already made for them. As for me, well, that's my Word.. because, like they say, ultimately it is our choices that define who we are today, right?