I was 24 or 25, visiting my mother - who still lived in my hometown - during a break in my travels. We went to breakfast at Waffle House (for non-Southern Americans - just a greasy and cheap but very popular diner chain). I noticed the waitress approaching out of the corner of my eye and looked up. I was stunned to see my best friend from high school wearing the Waffle House uniform.
I hadn’t seen her in five or six years. When we were teenagers, she was a slender beauty; at that moment, she was overweight, ragged, and very obviously embarrassed. She graduated third in our class and had planned since we were in eighth grade to attend medical school to become a neurologist. She had the grades, drive, family support, everything - but here she was, waitressing at a crappy small-town diner.
The inevitable “How have you been?” conversation was absolute torture for both of us, I think. My mom, who had worked in public education for years and had seen far worse, wasn’t as affected, but she could see I was badly shaken. There were tears in my eyes when I asked quietly, “How could this have happened to her?”
That’s when she said it: “Kate, the choices you make determine the life you live. Whatever else you do in your life, make good choices.”
It seems so simple and obvious that it’s easy to miss, but it’s painfully true. The choices we make affect everything in our lives. There is no choice so small that it is exempt from consequences.
Read other answers by Kate Viana on Quora:
- What's an experience that everyone raves about, but for you it just wasn't that great?
- What is the most selfish act you have ever witnessed?
- What do teenagers expect from their parents on their 18th birthday?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2dBJMtw
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