On Free Will

I'm a huge fan of the Harry Potter books (and I specify books because the movies are an insult to Rowling's genius). While reading the Chamber of Secrets a couple of months back, I came across an interesting theme when Dumbledore tells Harry 'it is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.'

This single line got my thinking, about choices, about free will, and about identity (yet again).

I do not believe in 'destiny'. I don't believe that God (yes I do believe in Him) put us on Earth with our whole existence written down for us, we being mere puppets enacting a script written in stone. Man was created (or evolved, whichever you prefer) with a free will, the master of his own decisions. Granted, circumstances are often out of our control, but how we react to them isn't, and that is what shows our true mettle. Our reactions are also, ironically, what alter the circumstances in the future, hence being what shapes our lives and determines our 'destiny'. (And in following this theory, the circumstances we find difficult to face are mostly the result of our own doings).

Choices are complicated things. Everyday is filled with a hundred little decisions to be made, whether they are trivial or otherwise. Sometimes, the decisions we have to make are difficult, like choosing between the blurry lines of right and wrong, or the easier and the more difficult, or following the well-travelled path or making a completely new road for yourself. Yet the right thing may be the most difficult to do, or breaking away from expectations (and tradition) to 'follow your heart' the right AND the more difficult. Brings to mind a couple of lines written by Robert Frost,

'Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.'

So ultimately, who we are comes down to not the labels we are born with or have thrust upon us along the way, but rather the choices we make in our lives. I have made a lot of terrible decisions in my life, but I do not regret my mistakes, because I learned from them. They made me who I am today.

I am proud of who I am today.