Journey, JH Park

Can we honestly say that at every moment in life we always have a choice in what to do? I think not. There are times when we have to accept that having no choice is, itself, the only choice.

Every action we choose comes at the cost of another action we don’t take. All of these choices play out along the continuum of time. As long as time never stops, neither do our decisions. In each moment, we are chasing something and, in exchange, giving up something else. And the sum of all those pursuits and sacrifices is my life — it is who I am.

Those moments when it feels like I have no options are usually more complicated than they appear. If I look deeper, I find the alternatives were there — I simply, and consciously, let them go. The reason might be a burning ambition in my heart, or a sense of emptiness I needed to fill, or even out of love and sacrifice for my family.

Whatever the decision, its true meaning can never be grasped except in retrospect. And even then, the meaning of that choice can change each time we revisit it. In that point, life is an endless gamble — a perpetual throw of the dice — where we never really know what our decisions mean.

For this reason, I will not look back, whatever path I take. Instead, I will immerse myself in the present, convinced that this moment is the only portion of life I can fully possess. This moment is everything.