• Seth lay on his blanket in his grandfather’s field, his jacket beside him so he could feel the cool night air on his arms. He stared up at the starry night sky, and found himself thinking of his life. His thoughts soon deepened.

    He had heard of the stars being compared to as people on earth or being used to measure emotions before, but as he lay there examining the surprisingly beautiful specks of light, he found himself thinking of the possible outcomes of choices people made everyday, and compared these to the stars. Seth marveled at so many possibilities and found his metaphor fitting. Each star I see, he contemplated, would represent a choice I could, would, or did make. A corresponding fate, I guess. There’s so many…

    And there really were. Seth decided that the brightest stars would be life changing choices that only he could make in a specific situation. His choices to steal, drink, and smoke. The choices that nearly killed him in so many ways. The choices that made him wish he were dead, the choices that almost pushed him over the edge. He thought of the one choice that ultimately led him away from those things: his choice to follow God. He thought of how this single choice affected his choice to quit everything, break up with his girlfriend, and find new friends. He had never thought about it, but that single, simple choice changed his life. But, he realized, that choice, all those choices, was also affected by other people’s choices. If that preacher had not been a preacher, if my parents didn’t believe in God, if Joel hadn’t introduced me to all those things, if he wasn’t into those things…if Annie hadn’t pushed for sex…where would I be? What would my life be like?

    He found his mind spinning at this thought and when he thought of his simplest of choices added into the equation, he realized that his original metaphor wasn’t broad enough nor as fitting as he had thought.

    The choices people made weren’t just the stars in the sky, but the whole galaxy. Each person’s choices were connected to another, building and growing on and on, and creating an infinite amount of possible choices that came from that single person’s choices that stacked, piled, and congregated so close, they were practically touching. They made up a community, a world, a galaxy. The choices everyone made affected not only those around them; they affected people they didn’t even know, people in their city, their state, their country…their very world. Somehow, he marveled, in some incredible, unbelievable, distant way, the choices one person makes affects the whole world, no matter how small that choice was or is, or how little that choice affects the world. With each choice affecting the world in whatever way, small or big, all together, without even realizing it, people are shaping the very world we live in. Everyone plays a part.

    Seth sat up, shivering not at the cool air, but at this sudden, mind blowing realization. He didn’t think he could ever be the same, or see the world the same, again.

    Will you?