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2 I The Best Online Education System in the world
DECISIONS, DECISIONS
Kathlyn Q. Barrozo
Class of 1991, University of Santo Tomas
B.S. Medical Technology
We often have to face decision-making numerous times in our individual lives. Nobody escapes making
decisions—it is a significant component of existence. If you have never made a decision even once, you are
most likely not of this earth.
It is not only corporate bosses who have the sole responsibility of making decisions. Housewives decide what
to prepare for family meals or how to budget what their husbands make. Children decide to wake up at the
proper time to get ready for school. Even our pets decide whether they like what we feed them or not by
turning away when they don’t and eating with gusto when they do. Simply put, no one, no living thing lives life
without making decisions.
As humans, we are faced with a greater number of decisions than other living beings have to make. This very
fact requires a greater sensibility to whatever decisions we make. Our options may be so great in number that
the conscious decision we arrive at needs much mulching over to be considered an informed and wise one. Or
the options could be so few that the final choice may not seem to be what we really desire at all. However else
our options are outlined before us, we still need to choose; it is upon us to make a decision.
There are no surefire formulas for arriving at the best decisions. Sometimes, decisions are arrived at based on
similar circumstances as other situations have been. Sometimes, the decisions work simply because of good
fortune. In some instances, decisions actually work because of underground maneuvering. In others still,
decisions work because they happen to be the exact fit for the actual problem at hand. Or of strange
circumstance are situations where no manner of decision-making can simply help put everything to rest. Such
Gordian knots have no solutions, the damned-if-you-do and damned-if-you-don’t paradoxes of this world.
However, we must not shun decision-making. This is because of the simple fact that it makes us what we truly
are: consciously-thinking humans. The decisions we make may not find approval from other people, might be
utterly unpopular, might be the most difficult ones we ever have to make. Yet they are still ours to make, ours
to have responsibility for, ours to either get blamed for or be glorified because of.
No matter how our decisions turn out, we should only look back knowing that we made them with full
knowledge and information. Making decisions is almost always like casting the dice; there’s just no going back
once it is done. What we can do is to prepare ourselves for the consequences-expect the best and prepare for
the worst. It’s not going to be easy, but somebody’s got to do it.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
1. What are your thoughts on decision making?
2. What decisions do you often have to make?
3. Talk about the time when you had to decide on your college degree. What were the surrounding
circumstances of that particular decision?
4. Was there ever an instance when you regretted a decision you had made? What happened at the time?
5. Do you consider yourself a wise decision-maker? Why or why not?