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Choices

Ho Lee, Grade 12
The result of who we are and who we will be, depends upon the choices we make in our life. In 1960, Edward Lorenz introduced the “Butterfly effect”. This theory explains that “the flap of a butterfly’s wing in Tokyo might ultimately cause a tornado in Tennessee”. Small changes could cause a significant difference in the future. 
 
Coming to Stanstead was a major choice of mine. Many of us differ from the person we would be if we never came here, including me. As described by the butterfly effect, not only the great choices we make determine who we will be, but also the small ones we make on a daily basis are of equal importance. No one can make only wise decisions, I am a good example of that, but we can learn and do things differently in the future by making better choices. Especially now, in these challenging times, our decisions have a great impact. 

Last year when I was in Grade 11, I was making the best memories with my friends and teachers here on campus that I will remember for the rest of my life. However, in the middle of March break, the school made a choice to end in-person class. My greatest journey of all time had to stop. The pandemic started to spread, threatening our world and our school. The school made a great choice of stopping in-person classes. However, that meant that I had to put my fun journey on pause. So, the fact that this decision upset me, I knew that the school was making the decision to keep us safe and help stop the spread of the virus. I missed rugby season, and most importantly my first prom with the boys. From my perspective, the school’s choice was very wise, because if the school decided to keep the year going, it would have put our community in danger. 

Choices come with consequences, so before making a choice we have to think ahead about what could possibly happen in the future. I think that as a community, we should make sure we take a moment of reflection, before making a decision. In times like this, our decisions and actions matter the most and can be the cause of others’ pain. 

Recently, I made the poor choice to hide the physical symptoms of being sick, which lead me to be suspended for a day. In this case, my poor choice came with a huge consequence, and I am sorry for putting my Stanstead community at risk. What I did was wrong and I was only thinking of myself at the time and not the whole community. 

Although we have accomplished a vast amount of success, our health should be our priority, and if we are experiencing symptoms we should see this as a sign to stop. It is our duty to say something as we would not only damage our own health but could put others in danger as well. Wearing a mask, social distancing, and sanitizing are all things that we have to do in order to keep each other safe. Although covid brought about negative aspects and diluted the everyday lifestyle, we had become accustomed to, the only way to strive is to move forward one step at a time, together, as one.
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