"How My Choices Will Influence My Future"

I found this old "essay" in one of my exercise books from primary school. Be warned that it is pretty long and repetitive (we were required to write 10 or so paragraphs of 10 lines (handwritten) each, not including the introduction and conclusion, and we hadn't been given much instruction on essay-writing).

A lot of things, such as friends, money, jobs and luck will influence my future. Some of these will have a positive effect and some will have a negative effect. Some I have no control over but some I do have control over. I believe that it is my choices that will influence my future most.

It will be easier to make decisions if I know exactly what I want to do when I am older. For example, if I want to live a happy life with a good job without becoming a drug addict or an alcoholic, then I would be far more inclined to work hard at school to get a good job and avoid drugs or alcohol than if I did not have a goal. Even if a goal is vague it can still have an influence on my life.

How I behave can have a large influence on my life. If I got a criminal record then I would not be able to do a lot of nice things and my life would be very different and possibly a lot more unhappy. I might be treated differently and maybe be avoided which would not be very pleasant at all. On the other hand, if I was nice to other people, people would be nice to me and possibly know me of the good things I had done.

Friends can also influence the way I behave, depending on which friends I make. Some friends might be very nice while others might try and force me to do things that I do not want to do. I believe that people who try and force you to do things against your will are not your true friends. I think that true friends respect and appreciate you for who you are and do not make you do things that you may not want to do.

My education will influence my future too. If I work hard and study well, I will have a better chance of getting a better job. On the other hand, if I slack off I probably will not get a good job and earn a lot less money. Usually it is not easy to stop procrastinating and study instead but it may be easier if you think about how it will help you enormously in the long run. It may be even easier if you have a goal in mind.

The job I get later on may have an impact on my life. If I get a good job, I could earn a lot of money, which in turn could be used to go on holidays, get a nice house and have a lot of nice things. If I don’t have a good job, then I will probably earn less money so I would not be able to go on as many holidays or get as many things. In addition to that, I would do more with my time if I worked rather than stayed at home.

If I had a boyfriend he would probably have an influence on my life too. I may have to be careful not to concentrate on him and to make sure that I still study and make the right choices in my life because he might just dump me later on anyway. I do not think that it is a good idea to let other people distract you from other things. After all, other people can be extremely unpredictable and occasionally they may disappoint you.

Money will probably have a large influence on my life. For a start, the more money I have the more things I can buy. The amount of money I have isn’t the only thing that matters thought. I believe that how you spend your money matters more. For example, there might be a person who is very rich but spends more than she or he earns and becomes poor, while there may also be a poorer person who saves their money and slowly and steadily becomes richer.

Alcohol may influence my future. If I become an alcoholic that will probably change my life forever. If I was an alcoholic I may feel that I need to have alcohol. That would be quite terrible. It is not good to have your life “ruled” by drinking or other unhealthy things. It is your choice whether to be an alcoholic or not, so it is probably a very wise idea to choose to avoid it so that alcohol does not consume your life.

Drugs may also have an influence on my life. Some drugs, for medicine, may be alright as long as you only take them when you really need to take them. Other drugs, such as marijuana and cocaine can be very bad for your health and only one is needed to start the vicious cycle of addiction. An addiction is often extremely hard to overcome and may consume your life for far longer than you think.

If I chose to sniff things I shouldn’t then that may have a negative impact on my life forever. Some odours affect the brain and I think that if you sniff these things too much the end result may be brain damage or even death (some of that may not be correct). Sniffing is mainly your choice. Sniffing is pointless and can have negative effects so I believe that one of the best things that you can do about it is to just avoid it.

Owning a car may have an influence on my life. If I am not careful on the road and get into a lot of crashes then I may lose limbs and my life would have changed because I would not be able to do all of the things that I am able to do now. Life would be far more unpleasant. On the other hand, if I am careful I will get into far fewer crashes but then again, I may not be lucky and crash into someone who isn’t being careful.

Luck will also have an impact on my life. Unfortunately it is not something that I can control. One day I can win millions of dollars from Lotto, while another day I could lose both legs in a car crash. But as my imaginary friend Xikun points out, “It is not the fall that matters- it’s the getting up again that does.” I believe that he is correct, mainly because luck is not something that anyone has control over.

I hope that my essay was enjoyable and enlightened you about how choices influence your future.

NOTES:

1. Seems to me that I was very materialistic. I would be lying to say that I'm not at all materialistic now, but I think I might be at least slightly less materialistic now, after having all of those experiences of being sick with diarrhoea over panicking about aeroplane toilets so much.
2. It also seems to me that I used commas quite sparingly. So, to ma,ke, up, for it,, here, are, a, lot, of co,,mm,as. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
3. I mentioned hard work and studying well in the paragraph about education. Like I even knew what the words meant back then. (I still don't know, but at least now I have a vague idea.)
4. In the paragraph about alcohol, I said, "That would be quite terrible." Reading over this essay, I laughed inside. It reminded me of an Uncyclopedia article about Qantas that said, "Qantas airplanes (also known as the exploding bomb) are impervious to all anti-aircraft missiles, rocks, birds or acts of God because it is made of metal, which is very strong."
5. I QUOTED XIKUN!!!'
6. "I hoped you enjoyed my essay." Seriously?! It wasn't even that well written!