Decisions, Decisions–Maisie The Writer

August 31, 2015 by fabulousfeministfangirl 3 Comments

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Decisions, Decisions.”

My personal approach to decision-making is a more reason-based approach. When I make a decision, I like to imagine each possible outcome that could happen with each possible choice, sort of like a pros and cons list. If I envision Choice A having a more safe, positive outcome on the future–near or distant, depending on the decision to be made–than Choice B, then I will decide on Choice A and vice versa.

There are four key factors I usually take into consideration when making a decision:

1. My personal happiness and enjoyment
2. Past experiences I’ve had in similar situations
3. The past experiences of my friends and family in similar situations
4. My own personal safety (perhaps the most important thing to consider)

I will demonstrate my thought process for a sample decision that I’m actually trying to make at this very moment. I am currently trying to decide between two camps to go to for next summer. One camp is a creative writing day camp near my house, and the other camp is a three-week overnight camp at a college a few hours away from my house.

The first factor to consider is my personal happiness and enjoyment. The day camp is from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm from Monday to Friday, whereas the overnight camp is obviously all day, every day for three weeks. If I went to the day camp, I would have to occupy myself at home for part of the day, but I would have fun things to do all day if I went to the overnight camp. However, it would be hard for me to be happy if I were homesick at the overnight camp, even though I would probably get over my homesickness pretty quickly.

The second factor to consider is past experiences in similar situations. I have been to both day and overnight camps, and I have had a pretty good time at both, but I liked day camp a lot better because I missed my family and friends back home at overnight camp. On the other hand, I met one of my best friends in the entire world at overnight camp. I did have friends at day camp, though.

The third factor to consider is the past experiences of my friends and family in similar situations. My friend went to the overnight camp and had an okay experience. She liked the classes that were offered at the camp, but one of the camp’s goals was to “foster independence,” and that goal was supposedly achieved by making independent outings into the center of the town near the camp, and apparently the town is one of the scariest, sketchiest places in America. There was a murder that took place in the town while my friend was at the camp, and after the person was murdered, the murderer chopped the arms and legs off of the body and stuffed the limbs into a garbage bag later discovered by an innocent civilian.

That brings me to my fourth and final factor, safety. Based on my friend’s experience, I clearly have a greater chance of making it to sophomore year if I go to the day camp. If I were to make my decision right now, I would choose the day camp.