Paths people take

As one philosopher said, to be mature is to discard alternatives as you walk along your path. You start out with the world as your oyster and you end up just being one out of many. But it's not as bad as it sounds. I grew up lacking real life models so I turned to a lot of imaginary ones. Saints, literary heroes, dead presidents, and fictional spies all occupied my countless daydreams. Unlike many others, I wasn't born with any plan. I was heir to no fortune and no pedigree. I could be anything I wanted to be. Or at the very least, I could dream.

I muse on this now because after having watched The Social Network this afternoon, it brought back the same kinds of feelings after having watched Batman Begins and the Dark Knight. These movies were all about choosing the paths. Most of the time we choose them, but sometimes, it chooses us. There were many points along the way where I could have chosen one over the other, and like any normal human being, I tried, with much tenacity I must add, to preserve as many options as I could. After all, that's the beauty and magic of youth.

In the end, I chose. I started choosing when I was twenty. Like somebody going through a wardrobe overhaul, I kept sifting through and throwing the old clothes out. New options presented themselves, but were shortly discarded later, until everything slowly shaped up to be what it is right now. I still have choices, sure, but they are not as radically different from each other as they were several years ago.

Perhaps it is not an accident that I am here at Harvard now, on the path to one thing, though it never occurred to me at all to be here doing what I am doing, least of all, complaining (at times) that I've been here long enough or even contemplating the possibilities beyond it. But that comes only with the benefit of hindsight. I did not know then and I could never have planned then. But maybe this is the lesson we need to grasp. The power lies in the choices we make, and in the process, discard some in favor of one or few.

In the end, I am not sure which is harder: making a choice, or living with it.