When the Right Answer Sounds Wrong

It all happened on a Saturday, I anxiously awoke - still dead (the irony of that word will become evident, later) to everyone else - my friend and I were both going to All State band auditions. My girlfriend, at the time, lived in Charleston – where the auditions were going to be held. So, Davie and I devised a plan to convince my parents to let me drive up there. So we went ahead with the day just as planned, and seemingly ‘overslept’, justifying my need to drive. When I awoke, I convinced my parents to let me drive so I could make this all-important audition. I went to pick-up Davie and as planned, the trip followed the course we charted, almost perfectly. We ventured to Charleston, auditioned and performed great. Afterwards, we met up with my girlfriend along with some of her friends and treated them to dinner. My girlfriend and her friends asked Davie and I to a party, and that would be one of the most crucial decisions I would make on the first half of my journey. We went to the party; it was a high school party that let out about 12:00 in the morning. After fraternizing with my girlfriend and talking for a while, Davie and I started on the way home but, really, the trip was far from over. Fatigue is the number one reason for serious accidents; accounting for more than twenty percent of these accidents. I was already tired, and before I knew it I awoke in the hospital. I eventually became aware of my whereabouts and was soon frantic over why I was there, but had no recollection of why or how. From my attempts to communicate, verbally, with myself, I’d noticed that something was wrong with my verbal communication skills. Then from my attempts at walking I learned that I was immobile; and from falling I learned that I couldn’t move my right-hand. Susan Newman, Ph. D, in her book The Book of No, says that pleasing everyone will not work for you when you’re trying to please yourself, as well. Herbert Fensterheim, Ph.D., co-author of Don't Say Yes When You Want to Say No, also, denotes that saying ‘no’ is essential in ‘gaining a life of freedom’. A substantial amount of evidence suggests that saying ‘no’ is beneficial, most of the time. The experts attest that saying ‘yes’ to people tyrants our lives and saying ‘no’ would be the best option. I could have said ‘no’, at first, when Davie and I had started planning the deceptive scheme. I then should have said no when my girlfriend asked Davie and I to that party. Since that day I have thought a lot about questions of existentiality, but the question that reverberates louder than any other regards the inquisition of if I would have said ‘no’. In my life, at the present moment, I am dealing with examining the existentialist philosophy, which says ‘we exist for a reason’. I believe my accident played a quite substantial role in my life, pending the accuracy of the existentialism philosophy, and saying ‘no’ would have definitely ruined life’s plan for me. I can, now, see that according to karma principles (and other forces of the like); saying ‘no’ in that instance was not possible