YMI Doing This

What Defines a Person?

By: Hubert Fong

It’s a quite a simple question really.  Every person’s definition can be different.  The things that define a person are what their morals are and what they believe is the right thing.  However, in many cases, what some people believe to be the right thing is seen as wrong in the eyes of other people and vice versa.  Many people in our current world only judge by sight and appearance these days.  Even though someone looks evil doesn’t mean they are.  What can truly define someone is how they live their life.  Are they nice?  Are they mischievous?  Are they helpful?  What someone does in their everyday life determines the type of person they are seen as.  Something else that makes each person unique is their influences.  From my own personal experiences, I used to know a brother and sister back in high school who had an abusive parent in their household.  Even though I lost contact with them, I heard from a friend that one of the siblings is going to law school to become a criminal prosecutor who focused on abusive households while the other sibling became a police officer to uphold the law.  Do you see?  Just because the world has thrown you over the edge and says, “Here you go.  Good luck.” doesn’t mean that you have to stand for it.  You can go against the grain and become something better which is what defines each and every unique person.  This is what defines people.  Do you fight for what you believe is right or do you just sit back and watch as the story unfolds?

What I truly believe what defines one person from another is their will: do they have what it takes to get the job done when it is truly counted upon them to do so.  All it takes to shake the very foundation of someone are words and yet, where some run backwards and coward in fear, others run forwards towards the flame and burn themselves believing what they did to be the right choice.  In truth, no matter what choice you make in your life, you will always regret it regardless of what you say or think.  Deep down, somewhere in your mind and body, there is a voice that says “I shouldn’t have done that.”  This voice is not your inner conscience; this voice is your primal instinct for self preservation that says to let the weak die and the strong continue on living.  Even as we grow old, our primal instinct takes over and we begin to think over everything that we had done in our lives and regret the decisions that we made.  However, it is those who lie on their death beds and believe that their actions were justified are the ones who have come to revelations with their past decisions and they are the ones who have been put at peace with what they have done regardless of those around who will continue to shun them.

Personally, I have always been a watcher and never a doer, but when it comes down to it, I would be willing to help someone when they need it.  You always see people on the news doing heroic things in order to save another person’s life and some of them would prefer to remain anonymous.  When they get interviewed by news crews and what not, the same question always pops up, “Why did you risk your life to save this person?” and the answer is usually the same: they would say that they saved the person because it was the right thing to do and they weren’t trying to be a hero.  In their eyes, saving a life is just that, saving a life; they don’t know if that person has a family who is waiting for them or if there is a baby in the back seat inside of burning car.  They just did it because that is how they feel that they should live their lives.  That is what defines a person: by the actions that they do and not by the words that they say.