The Power of Choice
‘Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto’, is a Latin quote that translates to, ‘I am a human and nothing human is alien to me’. This powerful quote is attributed to Roman playwright Terence, who was brought to Rome from Africa as a slave, but was eventually freed. This is a quote that was often used by Maya Angelou, the famous poet and activist, in her class, to drive home infinite possibilities of the human psyche. A quote so powerful, it talks about how every human being possesses whatever it takes to do what some other human being has done- be that something mundane, something brilliant, something inspiring or something that is pure evil. Yet, a larger chunk of humanity is not pure evil, because we make a conscious choice to not be evil. Such is the power of choice. Given this immense power of conscious choice that we humans possess, I sometimes wonder if defying labels and stereotypes, rising against odds or creating a positive impact is just a matter of choice. It probably is, b...