But You Could Be Anything

One of the things that makes humans different from all other animals is our ability to recognize decision making, especially bad decision making, in our peers. It's so obvious when our friends go for a relationship that's completely wrong, stay in a job that does nothing for them, or start or continue down whatever destructive path they're choosing. But it's fucking impossible to see these same things in ourselves.

One other thing that makes us humans different is that even if we do know we can do better in whatever aspect of our lives, it's an entirely different thing to know those close to you can do better but don't take the effort. It's so obvious to you, but they can't see it, or won't see it, or see it but refuse to do anything about it. There is someone who is (or was) in my life who refuses to earn his full potential, someone who was with the exactly wrong kind of guy, someone who pines for the exact wrong kind of guy, someone who has made every wrong decision ever presented to him, someone who makes poor financial decisions, someone who could be a great boyfriend but finds excuses, someone who lets one decision run her life, someone who hides behind the decisions of others and someone who makes decisions I'll never understand. And then there's me, who sees these people blindly making certain decisions, and recognizing how I make those same decisions every day.

Thing is, I know there are good things out there for me, and I know there are better things out there for those I care about. I know we have to want them bad enough to change aspects of our lives and go after the better things. That knowledge makes us different from other animals. Whether or not we use that knowledge, however, is a completely different story.