Choices: What Kind Are You Making?

                  Did you ever take the time to stop and think about the choices and their impact they've had on your day? Did you wake up early or did you wake up with just enough time to catch the bus? Did you eat breakfast or are you going to wait because you have a test study for instead? All of these little choices may or may not have a dramatic impact on our lives but still play a role in our everyday lives. Now think about big decisions you've made in the past week. Did you start your paper or early or did you spend all night working on it the day before it's due? Did you tell someone something and it's still having an impact four or five days later? Again, the choices we make have crucial impacts on our past, present, and future.
                 As future physical educators we need to be aware of the choices we make but more importantly the outcomes associated with those choices. The choices we will be making will not only affect us but our students. What choices are you making to help yourself become a better physical educator that will ultimately affect your students. I made a choice Spring semester of my sophomore to be try and better myself everyday! Everyday I would pick one thing from the day previous that I could improve on and try to better myself. Then I made the choice to become more involved here at SUNY Cortland with clubs, volunteer work, the program, etc. I understand everyone has their own agenda and everyone has about a million things on their plate but your making the choice not to do these things because of other commitments. Your choices don't have to be to join clubs or do volunteer work but just think about the classroom. 



                 In PED 201 or EDU 255 what ways can you make yourself better? For me, I would look at everything I did right and then made a choice everyday to work on something that I found not up to my standards. I made the choice that I would work hard and give 150% effort to becoming the best physical educator that I knew how to be. How many people do you know that once they fail at something they give up? Or they don't even try something new? That's their choice... but how many people try new things and if they fail want to try again to succeed? If your a physical education major you should never say things like "Oh I can't do this!" or "Man, I hate doing that, I'm doing that" I wanted to become a better person, a better learner to ultimately help me be someone that stands out in the phys. ed program. With 800 phys. ed majors alone how are you going to make yourself more marketable and unique? Or are you not going to do anything? The choice is yours...

Someone that I would call a friend and an idol once told me a story and he said "There once was a old wise man that lived at the top of a hill. Everyone that lived in the village always consulted the wise man. Well one day a small boy thought to himself that he was going to trick the wise man to see if he was really as wise as he claimed to be. The boy caught a sparrow in his hands. He would bring this sparrow in his hands to the wise man. He would ask the wise man if the bird were dead or alive. If the wise man said it was alive, the boy would smother it and kill it. If the wise man said it was dead, the boy would open his hands and release the bird. So, the little boy walked up the hill to see the wise man. The wise man was waiting for him. The boy then called out "Hey wise man is this bird dead or alive?" The wise man then said "The bird is in your hands, only you can make that choice" 


So the moral of the story is that we all have a choice. We have a choice to get better, and work harder and do incredible things! But nobody can you do anything. The choice to be proactive and an agent of change starts with you. Choose to inspire greatness with your students, peers, family members, etc. Make the choice to be the very best person you can be everyday! because if you're not doing or being your best, then your wasting your abilities and your time. Everything you do should be with passion and should be done for a purpose. Leave a comment below on things that you did great today! Things you want to improve on! and some choices you'll make to help you become a better person, physical educator, etc. Just remember... if not you, then who?