It has always been said that people have to make a lot of choices
throughout their life. Some can quickly make up their minds but some may
take hours, days, or even weeks before they come to the final decision.
Me, I fall into the latter group :P Standing before choices, I can’t
help scratching my head: a part of me tells me to do this while another
induces me to do that, and so on. Coincidentally, yesterday morning, I
encountered a series of dilemmas (I mean the difficult choice between
two things), so I can take this as a good example for my above
statement.
Everything had started since I walked into the bookstore with the
intention of buying “A walk to remember”. There are literally many
foreign books imported overseas so I was allured to linger at every
bookshelf and viewed as many books as possible. I must confess that I am
attracted by a book’s cover and layout virtually as much as I am by its
content. And there were some catchy teenage books with beautiful covers
that I couldn’t stand fixing my eyes on. Suddenly, I asked myself:
“Should I purchase this teenage book instead of “A walk to remember”
because I have read the translated version of it already?” That question
puzzled me for almost 1 hour (meanwhile I kept picking the book up and
putting it down over and over again) before I eventually decided to buy
“A walk to remember”.
That’s not all. I was also interested in two dictionaries I came
across. They are useful for my English study but a part of me said: “Are
you sure you’re gonna make the best use of them or are they just
destined to lie untouched or rarely-used like many other books in your
bookshelf?” Yes, I have the habit of going to the bookshops and
buying any book I love at first sight. Sometimes I wish I could buy the
whole bookstore, but long before, I realized I’d never been a real
bookworm. Back to my decision on buying the dictionaries or not, I had
chosen an option which is something between yes and no, which is
procrastination :P I need more time to consider and may come back
another day when I am ready to buy them.
Going out of the bookstore with only one book, I headed for the bus
stop. A thought flashed in my head: “Grant myself an ice-cream”. How
come? I don’t know but I felt like eating one, esp in this cold weather
;) I was nearly on the point of storming to buy one but I resisted
myself and memorized: Last week I ate an ice-cream; the week before, the
same … I have eaten a lot since Tet holiday. Not so good for a
physically-lazy person like me. OK, stop my ice-cream desire here.
… I stopped at the intersection and carefully watched the vehicles
before crossing the road. On looking down at the ground, I spotted a
10,000 VND note. For many people, they don’t need a single second to
think what to do when seeing it, but as for me, a “thoughtful” person
(:P) I must ponder over whether to pick it up or not. I reckon that it
is a shame to take the money which doesn’t belong to you before people’s
eyes. And I will feel guilty using that amount of money for my personal
purposes. Coming between those thoughts of mine was my sister’s story
just a few days ago, that she came across a dropped note on the street
and she took it with delight. She said it wasn’t a sin. We can never
find the right owner and return the money. If we don’t take it, someone
else will do without fail. So why waste such a “chance”? …But guess
what? I didn’t take it after all.
Thereafter, I got into no more dilemmas and I feel lucky about that because irresolution has made me sick enough.
No less than one time did I try to explain this awkwardness of my
mind. After the first semester at the university, I’ve learned some
things useful which can somehow help me answer this question.
In terms of philosophy, there always exists contradictions or
conflicts within us human but it is very natural because it is the
impetus of development. I don’t understand how this can be applied to my
case, so I must turn to another subject to seek for a more appropriate
explanation for my problem. And I found what I need in Economics.
According to it, we always face scarcity, thus we have to make choices.
Once an option is chosen, we know for sure that we have paid an
opportunity cost for that choice.
I know I have to make my choices for as long as I live, so I had
better learn how to make wise choices instead of complaining how hard it
is to make one :))