We Dont Choose a Life, We Live It - Essay Example

Information We Don’t Choose a Life, We Live It We all agree on the fact that we cannot take the life we live, or at least I intend to demonstrate that. But how we live the life that we find ourselves in is what differs greatly among us humans. If we all were to choose where we want to be born, which family will raise us up, the mistakes we will commit along the way, then life will be boring and lose the excitement we experience around us. In fact, by living our life, we get to make decisions; decisions that shape and change our lives in ways we never knew existed, while at the same time we get to know and embrace our strengths, weaknesses and differences. Whether we believe that the life we have comes from God or we evolved and Mother Nature decides where we land, one thing is for sure, that none of us has control of that life, we only get to live it. We will also agree that no one has a map of how to live this life; it is like a giant complicated maze that we are all trying to break out from. In real life, it is like everybody is a tourist, we either are trying to arrive at a different place in our life we have never been or just looking for new experience. How however we go about accomplishing our new destinations and creating memories, is what separates us; it is part of what makes us different in the end. There are two classes of persons in life, those that follow the rules and get through life how they are told to and there are those individuals that like taking risks, trying out things that others are not willing to. Tourists when visiting new places, they have guides who show them where to go and narrates everything they think is important for them to know. But if that is the best way to get through life is another issue that needs debating. Again at the same, also drifting from the group mentality and visiting places on your own and experiencing life and new situations differently is another debatable way to get through life. As a tourist myself, I am of the view that always following what the guide says and being content with it is not the best way to experience new places. For one to get the full experience of a place, they need to meet the locals, talk to them. Let them give you an account of how they live. What makes them different and behave in a certain manner thus that is the only way to travel and get a true tourist who not only takes photographs and memories, but also experiences. This is exactly at the end of the day, shapes our lives, the way we think and interact with one another. It is true that the universe is full of different sceneries different from where we live, that is a fact. It is also true that these places have different people living in them from us. Just visiting the place and getting the history from it is not as important as meeting the people who live there. The world is developing so is the technology, this sis seen today where we have cyber space in place. Places where virtually people can visit new places and act as if they are touring real places. To imagine you can achieve all this right from the comfort of your home is what makes it even more exciting. As much as this is an important step in technological development, in my view, it curtails the ability for individuals to shape how they see the world and how other people think. Although it is a very exciting idea, it cannot compare to the real life changing experience derived from one on one dialogue with locals from different regions of the globe. People become involved in tourism for many reasons, it can be leisure, which can be substituted by cyber space virtual tourism, and it could also be for business purposes. But one thing stands out, that an effect is produced, either on the locals visited or the economy of the host nation. Recently, there are issues which have come up in the tourism sector. One of them is sustainable tourism which involves management of all resources in such a manner that we preserve cultural integrity for instance while in pursuit of economic needs. If the life a person lives is one that requires constant traveling in different countries, their cultures in such situations and it is imperative that such cultures are preserved for the benefit of the future generation. Whatever one decides to do when confronted by these cultures is what defines how a person lives the life he has got. Although I said that sometimes making your own way in life rather than following what the guide says can be a healthy way of shaping a person’s character, there are cases where tourists have been involved in what I would like to call selfish acts. They visit places and instead of sharing the good they have and taking what is helpful, they prefer to be destructive. Taking Kenya as a country of study for instance, there have been allegations of child prostitutions by tourists in its one of the coastal towns. This is merely a good example of how we can choose to live the life we experience. This shapes how the whole a town, city and even a country thinks. It also has an effect on the tourists themselves. These acts shape how they look at life, how they see themselves. But if we are to consider the cultural integrity of places that such kind of evils happen, then there might not be a tomorrow generation to help mend the Brocken social fibers of the community. So this all boils down to an individual, although we do not choose a life, we live it and we can live this life positively impacting the whole world with our good deeds. There is also Ecotourism other times referred to as ecological tourism which aims at preserving fragile places on earth. This kind of tourism is just another vital way that we can choose to live the life we got in a productive manner. Although pro-poor tourism as a way of elevating the lives of locals is a welcomed idea, I my view it causes more damage to future generations than it is doing good. What we are engraving in the minds of the young is that there countries can only perform better with aids from what are called developed nations. What instead we ought to teach them is that is okay to be different, we can rise from any difficult situations that life throws our way. We can do this only by cooperation between countries. Let tourists visit these places not because they want to help economically but because they are eager to learn from these places and teach what they know in return. We don’t choose to be born if affluence and others abject poverty. It is all designed that way so that we can help each other and learn from it. This is the only way we grow as persons and a race; living a life of selfishness and only caring about youself and family does not constitute living. In my view that is mere existence. Let us go back and imagine that we can actually choose the life we want to live. The less fortunate will probably desire to have a life of success. The disabled might require to being different too in that context. So coming back to the lives that we actually live, there are things we might want to do differently to propel ourselves in those positions that we want. Those decisions that we would make is what is called living. That is what constitutes our character, determines how we relate with our fellow human beings. Think of the emotive topic of racism thus considering that we know the definition of it, what really started it is the mind. The fact that other humans believe they are superior to others. We were then living and grew up being shaped by that idea just like tourists on a guide. Those that have dared to break away have experienced the joy that diversity brings when you visit places with different persons from you. That is what I would call living is which is following rules although they are retrogressive is what we can call mere survival. But a person will not truly live unless they have the courage to make their own decision in life. This however is not to say that we should deviate from norms in life which facilitate proper existence of all human races. There are things like medical tourism and educational tourism which assist the world to function in the right way. The exchange programs between nations for educational reasons and medical equipment is something which each nation and individual should uphold. When visiting different countries, the knowledge impacted by tourists should be of high quality and correct. Again this is a choice we have to make where we either choose to do the correct thing or simply follow our own selfish desires. Let us now delve into the more exciting part of living a life as a tourist. Experiences along the way can only be compared to a fantasy movie. Watching the wild beast migration in Kenya is one of the most exciting experiences in the life of a tourist, the magnificent plains spread over the horizon creating a mirage of color makes one stare in awe. This life is ours to live and though we have not chosen it, we have to live it. Seeing ourselves develop and experiencing every day a new instills in us a desire to be free and become better than we ever were. Why would anyone travel thousands of miles only to see a beautiful landscape you wonder? Well only a person devoid of culture and experiencing new things would want to think this way. In all of us is an inherent ability to seek change and explore, curiosity did not just kill the cat, it invented a mouse for it to catch. An African safari believe you me is the best medicine for any morning or evening. Living in the African jungle, you get covered at night with a blanket of shining stars that you hardly see in the big city. The skies are blue and you finally realize what it means to have freedom to think. The stunning sights around me take my breath away from the African lion to the gazelle running for her dear life. Who made him king of the jungle anyway, I mean all he does is sleep and yawn and make the little animals shudder in fear. Well king he is and you would want to go out and experience his majestic kingdom in which he rules with much strength. But that is not all about the jungle, there is always the cheeky creature devoid of discipline and rules. Take the hungry hyena, waiting until you chase your kill and hide it behind some bushes. He waits for you to leave thinking that all is safe and walks to your hideout smiling within. Slowly and surely he eats up this juicy kill until it is all gone and leaves the bones the naive lion. Well this is just my observation and everyone gets to experience different things at all times. In the evening we sit down to some to some roasted bush meat and believe me, you have not experienced food until you taste this. Whether it’s the taste of barbecue meat or the ambience of the African savanna in the background this meal is something out of your experiences. The evenings are cool and the days are hot but in every way, the country is beautiful. Moving on to Europe the continent with the interesting weather, I soak in rain on arriving at Heathrow airport. I am now transformed to a shopper a different breed of tourist, I have now chosen to spend and enjoy my hard earned money. Good clothes, expensive food all available at my feet but I still want more, my life needs more. I have chosen to be a tourist, no holds barred able to travel at will and go anywhere life will take me. My journey is not over yet; I move on to Paris and go up the Eiffel Tower, all this time having fun. Amazing wonders I see, and all this time at the back of my head I keep wondering why I never did this before. I always had the resources and the ability to do this, but this was not the case as my will was gone. What we choose to do with our lives defines us and makes us either better or worse, and this is something I have now realized. We all grow up wishing and dreaming of visiting the world to experience the different cultures but we hardly do. Most of us only know wild animals through the television or the petting zoo, but we have never tried to go to the jungle. Not because we cannot but because it is different and our comfort zones feel safe. So what if the water is a little murky, and the roads full of earth, isn’t that an experience? Well it is, and having all these memories that I know I am a better person for experiencing it. I now have a chest full of wonderful memories and every day that passes I get a new clip playing at the back of my mind. No longer am I the miserable person who had nothing to live for, but I am now equated to a butterfly free to go where I please. Now my dreams are filled with new destinations and the ability to do what I do not already know. After experiencing all the wonderful things above, they do not always have the same impact on us. Craig states that “I never planned to be where I am today, but I know that my choice to act or not to act has built my experience”, (Craig, 2012, par. 29). It is true that we are free to do whatever we desire. We can go over the whole world. But is important is the decision you make along the way that will eventually shape the kind of individual you turning out to be. The simple things we overlook everyday will be very instrumental with what characters we all end up in the future. The kind of people you choose to associate with, the places you choose to go is all vital in determining whether you will become an old happy person that people will want to be with or become old and grumpy with nobody to talk to. In conclusion, it is a fact that we do not under any circumstances have a say in our life, what we conquer on however is the fact that irrespective of the life we find ourselves in, it is how we live it that conjure our future. The decisions we have to make at some point in our lives one way or the other play a role in what we become or how we feel about ourselves in the future. Not only this but how we relate to family, community and the world as a whole dictates how people view us and where we are ultimately ranked in life by the society. Although others might argue that it is not of importance what people think of us, the fact still remains that we do not live independently of the world. It is like we and the universe are partners. So where do you as a person want to be when you are old and cannot survive but depend on others? I bet the answer to that is to be close to friends and family who genuinely want to be around us and not out of mere responsibility. That can only be achieved if we start living our life today by making decisions that eventually put us where we desire to be in the future. Works Cited Craig, C. You Don’t Choose a Life, You Live One. [Web Log Comment]. 2012. Print. Read More