A ripple effect is the idea that one small decision or action, ripples out and leads so countless other events. When you toss a rock into a pond and actually look at what happens to the water, you’ll notice several ripples of water stemming from the point where the rock broke the surface of the water. The rock didn’t just hit the water and leave it still, it created movement that impacted the entire pond.Just how the small rock creates movement in a pond, one small (or large) choice shifts the rest of your life.

Looking back at my life, even in just the past 4 years, everything changed due to one initial decision: where I wanted to attend college. Everything after that one random afternoon in January when I placed my acceptance, stemmed from that decision alone. While there were decisions I still had to make, none of those opportunities for me to make those choices would have been available if I didn’t choose my college. And, if I chose the other school I was looking at, there would have been a complete different set of opportunities for me.

While I occasionally am still ambivalent about my college decision, I wouldn’t be where I currently am in life without it. That decision was caused my biggest ripple effect to date, but I had complete control over it. Every choice we make we can attempt to envision where these consequences will take us, while outside factors might change the course, we can still get an idea of what will happen in our lives once we make a specific decision.

I don’t know about all of you, but I would rather have a little bit of control on my future and the ripple effects I will create than have someone else have that control. Our decisions, our ripple effects, leave an impact on our lives and other people’s lives. We can create our impact from the decisions we make- we just have to realize that all of the decisions we make will create a ripple effect.