Issue no.14
What is a choice? Simply put, it is an act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities. "the choice between good and evil"
Like most people I’ve held many jobs over the years. Gyms, restaurants, car dealerships and pet stores just to name a few. Out of these, my first was at a tomato factory when I was 14 years old. I still remember my mom coming into my room, tears in her eyes and telling me she didn’t have the money to buy me school clothes that year and if I wanted them, I would need to work. So, I “updated” my birth certificate to show that I was “18” and got a job at a tomato factory over the summer and when I graduated high school a few years later I came back to this same factory to work.
For 14 hours a day, six days a week I was lucky enough to work alongside one of the best guys I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. I’m confident the saying “he’d give the shirt off his back” was about him. We talked, ate lunch together, he’d even pick me up for work and drop me off while we played “Santeria” by Sublime on repeat.
After months of working at this factory I was offered my first sales job at a local gym and as fate would have it this guy was one of the first people I signed up and we began to work out together. Not long after that I made the decision to move to Los Angeles to get into real estate and we eventually lost contact.
This morning as I sat at a red light on the way to work, hot coffee in hand, something caught my attention from the corner of my eye. A homeless man. Not particularly unusual in Merced. I turn back to the road to ensure the light hasn’t turned green. It hasn’t. Something told me to look in this man’s direction again, I do. I know him.
I’d be lying to you if I said it didn’t bother me. One of those situations where I didn’t want to believe what I was seeing. So much so that I circled the block three times and all three times it was him, the man that would give the shirt off his back. How was I supposed to react to that? Would he recognize me if I approached him or was it too late? I drove around town aimlessly for the next two hours and If you’re from Merced you know that that translates into, I drove around in circles.
During this drive I started to think about how life simply boils down to the choices we make. We can come from the same background, the same school or in this case the same job but still take completely different paths. I started to wonder what makes the difference. Is it the fear of making the wrong decision that we don’t make one at all or is it because we have trouble with making choices so we just go with the path that life gives us?
A few days ago I typed out the word “compartmentalize” along with its definition on my laptop not really knowing why. That day with my scheduled lined up with showings I found out why, and I went to work.
Compartmentalize: Divide into sections or categories. “he had the ability to compartmentalize his life”
Your Realtor, Marcus
209.554.1715
info@myagentmarcus.com
CalDRE# 02005100
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