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ChoiceIn life everything we decide to do is a choice whether we made the right decision only time will tell. In Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" read by Seth Woodworth I heard how a man comes upon two roads and has to make a choice, which one should he follow ? Like in most scenarios in life we make choice from the moment we wake up "do I get up now or do I sleep in ? In the poem the man describes how he chose the road less traveled by hence -- there was more grass on the ground therefore less people probably traveled through there and how it made all the difference. I think this poem has an open ending. "I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."I see the story from two perspectives from one side I feel like the road less taken could mean he didn't follow the crowd did his own thing therefore he ended up in a better place doing better things (positive). On the other hand it could also be that the path less traveled was a darker (negative) path that lead him to bad place. I feel as if the last line was written to be interpreted from a optimistic or pessimistic perspective.
 Follow your heart or your head ? This question has been said to be one of life's toughest decisions. Sometimes we're put in predicaments where we have to choose to be with the one we love or let go. I've found myself in this situation a couple of times. I think every girl in her lifetime has a point in her life where she dates a guy that isn't so good for her and although we might be in love our best bet is to let go. In Rodolfo Anaya's "Dead End" protagonist Maria is faced with the difficult decision of having to choose between her heart (Frankie) or her conscience (staying focused in school). In the story Maria had made a promise to her mother to stay in school and get a good education. This promise was put to the test when Frankie a fellow schoolmate starts to catch feelings for her. Frankie is a local gang member who is always smoking pot, cutting class and has a bad rep. One night Frankie tries to get Maria to smoke a joint and she refuses she later realizes what's most important when she asks herself "Was she doing it for herself, or Frankie?" and although she has feelings for him she's won't jeopardize her education for it. I think Maria did the right thing if I would've been in her shoes I would've most likely done the same thing. A lot of times young girls get swayed by the idea of being in love and living happily ever after when in reality most young loves don't last. I do think it's important for young girls to have relationships because it's good to have experiences and I believe I learn a lot about myself like what I like, what I don't. In life we tend to question our decisions. Regret is probably one of the most common feelings after making a decision, did I make the right choice ? Maybe I could have done things differently. In Barry Schwartz's article "Tyranny Of Choice" he explains the phenomenon of our obsession with choice. Schwartz discusses how research has shown that people are less happy when given more choices because the chances that they'll be satisfied or wanting to have chosen something else increases. He breaks down the choice pickers into two groups "the maximizer" and "satisficer". Maximizer's tend to be people whom when given more options their expectations grow higher and therefore if they're expectations aren't met they become depressed or feel bad for making that choice. Another characteristic of a maximizer is they tend to always want more and therefore their never satisfied causing them to be depressed and blame themselves for not making "the best" decision. Satisficer's are people who when given options don't tend to get their hopes up too much so that even if their choice is not the best they don't tend to be as depressed. Satisficer's also tend to be happy with their choices because they don't feel a constant need to be up to date with things. I personally believe I am a maximizer especially when it comes to shopping. I probably have over $400 worth of clothing I've never worn and have for over year just sitting in my closet. I get tired of clothing easily and I'm always complaining about how I should have got this or that instead and whenever I decide to give or throw away my stuff I get really upset that my money went to waste. A lot of times I tend to have high expectations of the things I buy setting a higher standard for me to be satisfied. This is a huge problem especially among young adolescents who are constantly bombarded with all these options and end up adding so much pressure on ourselves to make the best decision that when we don't we get really sad by it.
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