Why Do People Do What They Do?

           Why do we as people do what we do in life? Why do we get a B or a C on a test we studied for? Why do we cheat on our partners, if we are in love with them? Why do we develop habits? Why do we feel what we feel? Now, I'm not a psychologist or a therapist, I'm just a twelve year-old kid writing about life at eleven at night. For the answers to these questions and more, I'm going to become a wise, humble person. I don't know why we do what we do exactly, but I do know the outcome and the fact that our decision on something doesn't just affect us and us only. It affects the people we love as well. If you decide to quit your job because maybe the manager is a nasty creep or it doesn't pay enough, then it will affect your friends, family, and you. How, you might be wondering? Well, say you lived in an apartment that you shared with your old college roommate, and you had to pay rent. You wouldn't be able to pay the rent because your only source of income was your job that you quit. Your roommate needs that money to pay for the bills, and if she doesn't get it, she'll be late on paying the bills, buying food, and acquiring essentials for staying alive. This is all because of you. You and your roommate could get evicted, starve to death, and die because you quit your job.

            Anything you do, whether it's throwing a piece of paper away or breathing, affects others. If you throw a piece of paper in the recycling bin, it gets taken to the recycling factory. They turn it into something brand new, so you can reuse it. You contributed to the world without even knowing. It's those simple things that can change everything, and you wouldn't even know. When you breathe, you are living, which means you have people that hate you, love you, or just don't know what to do with you. They're being impacted by your presence, in some way. Maybe not in a good way, but in a way you are in their life. Whatever you do, can either make the person you love hate you or love you more, and can make the person that hates you love you or hate you more.

         The human brain is very complex. It's very hard to navigate through without having a map. Now, by studying the human brain, we are only studying physically how the brain works; how the body knows when to react when it thinks it's in danger, how it sends and receives messages throughout the body, and what part of the brain controls what movement or thought we do or create. Scientist don't know what the brain is thinking at one moment in time because then everybody would be able to read each other's minds, and that wouldn't be good. But, there's an old African proverb that says, "When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers." This means that when two people fight, whether it's physically or verbally, it hurts those around them. Even if the people around don't know the individuals who are fighting, it still affects them.

         Nobody can take back what they've done and that's the worst part. We can't change what we said, what we did, or who we hurt. At the end of the day, anyone you met or talked to has been affected by you. It's kind of scary knowing that what you do could change a person's life, forever. That shouldn't stop you from reaching your dreams and helping others. It is scary, but it can also reveal someone's true colors, and that's how you know who's by your side, no matter what. Whoever is sitting on the floor because their legs hurt from standing by your side too much, are the ones who thought of themselves first and put you second. The ones sitting are not there for you, but for themselves.