What I’d Do Differently
So many faces, so many races, different voices, different choices; these are the lines of Francis Magalona in his song Kaleidoscope World. These lines stick in my mind, when it comes to choices. There are many aspects, and there are many reasons on how we chose things. We meet different faces every day. We come from different races so we have different beliefs. We hear different voices and opinions that can change our beliefs and choices. So, what I’d do differently?
When many people are on their death beds, they think about their lives and think about what they could have done differently if they had been given the chance to live again. Every person has made one or more mistakes in life and a chance to survive will provide an opportunity to do things differently and right. Even though I have lived my life the way I enjoy it, there are different aspects that I could change if I lived again.
To start with, I will make sure I have high self-esteem and I make decisions without considering how other people feel about me. While in high school, I relied heavily on the reaction of other students to my actions. If I have the chance to live again, I will have confidence at a young age, which will allow me to decide without listening to other voices.
Second; if I had a chance to live again, I would like to have a real fun. Some of us are very good about having fun, and do it regularly. But some of us, especially as we get older, we tend to forget to have fun. We think we enjoy watching TV or playing a video game, and some of us really do, but many times we use these activities as stand for actual enjoyment. There is nothing wrong with that. It's just that you should also make space in your life for real enjoyment too. While there is a time and place for seriousness in life, there is an equal time and place for forgetting your problems for a few hours a week and really enjoying yourself.
Many of us are so focused on getting where we are going or where we think we should go that we forget that travel is often just as important. Life is a full-time, 100% learning experience. Even though we think we are in the middle of the most addictive, repetitive and enjoyable experience, life tries to teach us something. The problem is that many times we are not aware of it. We remove the experience, and in the process, we remove a part of our life. Embrace the journey, even if it’s only once in a while, and understand that everything is part of living a full and meaningful life.
Going back to the question; “What I’d do differently?” In two decades living on earth what I did differently is changing my mindset. As I grow older, I frequently wondering what is my purpose; am I happy on what I’m doing in life? Is this the real happiness, or am I pretending to be happy? Sometimes the greatest challenge we face in changing something about our lives is the actual act of doing something. We put barriers within ourselves to prevent ourselves from even trying to do something else, because we believe we will fail, it will be too hard to change, or it will take too long. We didn’t even start.
The beauty and magic of thinking of life as a kaleidoscope is that you capture all the moments of your life, the good, the bad, and even the ugly and shuffle sparkly pieces and pieces together to create an amazingly beautiful image, uniquely unique and important because we understand that a little shifting can quickly change the image.
















