It’s interesting to watch people make decisions. Sometimes it’s based on facts, sometimes emotion, sometimes it’s inner personal beliefs, etc. Some choices are easy to make. If we know something is hot, we have the choice to touch it or not. If we touch it, we get burned. There’s no way to not get burned as that is the nature of hot. We have the choice, and most of us after having touched something hot once will make the other choice, to not touch it so we don’t get burned. Choices like that are easy. There is a clear cause and effect.

But some choices seem a little bit less obvious. We get into a situation where there is peer pressure, friend or family pressure, religious pressure, to behave a specific way. There is usually a motive or reason behind each groups pressure. Peer pressure might just be so that you fit in, even if it’s a bad choice, at least you’re not sticking out like a sore thumb. Other groups just need members. But some groups, often family and close friends, want what is best for you.

The older people get the more aware they are of dangers in younger peoples lives. As younger people however, we often think of older people as old fashioned. Often wondering how they would ever know or how could they ever relate to what is currently going on. It’s not until we get older that we realize how much they actually know, but by the time we realize this, we’ve may have already made the mistakes we were warned against. We all seem to have to make some of the same mistakes as the older generation before we learn. Not everyone, but a vast majority of us.

Even though I didn’t always listen, I am truly grateful for the people in my life who have guided me in my decision making. Sometimes I don’t listen as well right at the time of the advice, but as I get older, I try my best to take it into consideration, trying to step back and look at the bigger picture. We are all climbing mountains, and while everyone’s mountain may look a little bit different, the way to the top can often be very similar, and there are people out there, higher up than we are, who can see things we can’t yet. We need to listen to them. We also need to look back, see the people below us, and help them navigate the path and climb higher as well.