Choices

ILANG tulog na lang, April 15 na. Certified public accountants are not sleeping anymore as the income-tax deadline draws near. That’s why I’m a non-practicing CPA—I can’t stand the stress and pressure.

The career we choose will determine the kind of life we will have. The food we choose will determine the kind of health we will have. The lifetime partner we choose will determine the kind of marriage we will have. It’s all about the choices we make today. All these we learn once we have reached a certain age.

Lucky are those who knew what they wanted to be right from the start even before college for they would have a more purposeful life. Still, there’s no guarantee.

I knew I wanted to be a CPA when I was still in high school. So, I took up Accounting in college. But once I began studying Accounting, I felt like a fish out of water. Proving that fish needs water. Or something like that.

But I still became a CPA, anyway, to avoid regrets.

Life, however, is not only about me. Or you. It takes a village to raise a child, as the proverb goes. Each of us belongs to a community, and whatever happens to that community may or may not affect us. So, the community we choose also determines the kind of life we will have.

There are people who are amazed by the wealth and power of other people, thus, they will choose such people as their friends.

There are people who want to be praised all the time, thus, they will choose people who will always praise them, even if the praises are obviously fake.

There are people who want to be popular, thus, they will choose popular people as their friends, hoping the popularity will rub off on them.

The clinginess and inability to be alone will eventually result to absolute dependence on other people to make themselves complete if they believe they’re incomplete as they are. They need props to create some kind of perfection, the ideal image they want to project. It’s only for show, though. Once no one else is looking, they can finally be their own selves, sans the props.

Maintaining a particular status in life can be tiring. Better be real then, and remove delusions of grandeur.

Politicians, celebrities, and showbiz actors, however, may have delusions of grandeur to make their fans believe that what the latter see on Facebook and in the news is the real character of the rich and famous. Public relations pa more. To the extent that the rich and famous won’t know anymore who they are as they continue to believe their own press.

“I don’t care who you are/Where you’re from/What you did/As long as you love me/Who you are/Where you’re from/Don’t care what you did/As long as you love me.”

Ay, ana gyud? Haha! But people should care about who you are and where you’re from and what you did. They should not blindly vote for politicians and idolize unworthy celebrities and believe in the rich and famous. Because it’s all PR.