Personal Application #2

            The past few sections of reading have been harder to apply to my personal life, at least in the sense of religion. My father is a non-practicing Jew, my mother went to Catholic school for all of her life, yet is also non-practicing. We celebrate Christmas, but it has become more of a time to celebrate family than any religion meanings that generally come along with it. This means it’s been harder for me to relate to some of our discussions, and I haven’t yet been alive long enough to form my opinion about if there really is some sort of God out there. The idea of it is nice, but I haven’t witnessed enough to say for certain how I view the idea of God’s existence.

            In my mind at this point, I do believe that if there is a God, it isn’t one overarching, all powerful being who has entire control over people’s lives. This is where it gets into something I’m more comfortable discussing, since I’ve formed more complete ideas about it. Fate versus freewill is something that is constantly debated, even in my own mind. But I lean towards the belief that everything happens for a reason, yet we have control over the things that happen. We make choices that impact our lives, and send us down a specific path. Even if it isn’t the easiest path or the most pleasant one, it is my belief that we will come out on the other end with some sort of lesson learned, or strength gained in one way or another. For example, where I choose to go to college may be influenced by something more than just my wishes to go there (where I can get scholarship money, where it is in relation to home, etc), even if it isn’t my top choice, it’s happening for a reason, and I will come out the person I’m meant to be when the choice has been made. Although not every last bad thing to happen will teach us a lesson or make us better people, we still have control over how we view our lives and the events that have taken place.