Random People

Life is full of choices. Among these choices that we make is the choice of who we want to have around us. Yes, I am referring to friends. We are given the choice as to who we want to hang out with during our free time. We are given the choice as to who we wish to share sad and fun memories. We are given the choice as to who we want to share hurts and troublesome experiences with. We choose these people out of our preference, a so-called profiling of what an "ideal friend" is.

However, life can also be as mean as the next mean person you can think of. Aside from the "chosen friends" we are also given "random people." I would define random people as individuals who have entered our life not by choice but by chance. Since most random people are those given to us by chance, there is a probability that they are the ones who end up making our lives miserable. They could be the person who bullied us in class, the college professor who would not listen to any reason other than his, the arrogant pastor, the power-tripping boss or almost anyone who makes our life a living nightmare.

I believe that in the light of possibilities, random people are not that bad. I believe that they are just there, placed in our midsts, so that they may challenge us to grow. I believe that in this activity of challenging us the world is molding us to become better people who know how to laugh at the difficulties we face, which are brought about by these random people. The pessimist might think that random people are threats to his existence; but, to the optimist, the random people placed in his midst in nothing less than an opportunity that will help him become a well defined human being. He adapts to the challenges and learns how to move on because there are more things in life to worry about.

The optimist becomes a well integrated individual capable of taking up the challenge of the next day.