|
There used to be an anti-drug commercial on tv-a young black girl's arms are in the air ballet style and a kid's voice over says "I want to be a ballerina when I grow up". Camera pulls out and the girl isn't dancing, she's falling over in a heap. Man's voice over says, "No one ever says 'I want to be a drug addict when I grow up'. "
And I think this is why sometimes it's difficult to "wrap our heads around" what happens. The bad choices made ultimately led to her final choice which got her brutallly murdered. Then we remember the live person and the seemingly bad but innocuous choices made as a youngster and wonder why didn't she smarten up? What if I knew this would happen?
When I worked at the middle school, there was a kid I caught doing something really brainless. I stopped him, pulled him over to talk to him and said, "Repeat after me: You want fries with that?" His response, "That's cold, Mrs. R", to which I answered, "Keep it up and there's your future."
He never made it even that point. Ended up in jail while in high school.
The point is, even as a 13 or 14 year old, the choices that create our destiny are already being made-you saw that in this girl you knew, even though as things go, she was a stranger. But at the same time, those years can hold promise and that's the part we sometimes can't get past-there was promise and it wasn't reached.
Sometimes there is no "wrong place, wrong time." Just the wrong choice.
|