changing views

In my Senior yearbook for high school, I quoted the following: "What I am at any given moment in the process of my becoming a person will be determined by my relationship with those who love me or refuse to love me, with those whom I love or refuse to love." (J.Powell)

Now that I look back, I'm not sure I believe that as strongly as I used to. I mean, it's pretty logical, right? But after almost 10 years and many life lessons, I've realized that the most important part of that quote is: those whom I love or refuse to love. In the end, it's still our decision to treat a person a certain way. It's still our decision whether we're going to let them dictate how we act. He or she can be the nicest person on earth and love us to death, but it's still our call whether we let that person walk in to our life. In the same manner, they can be the most insensitive person we've ever met, but when we decide to love them, we love them no matter what. Taking responsibility for own outcomes (what we are at any given moment) is probably one of the hardest things to do. Although I concede that what we feel may be influenced by significant (or sometimes not-so-significant) others, but what we make of it is all our own. Like I've said, we make our own realities. After all, no one else can live our life but us.