I learned that when faced with a tough call, I can make good decisions, or at least they’re good decisions based on Cicero, a roman philosopher who wrote a book about making morally right decisions. Cicero postulated that good decisions are those that not necessarily benefit you, but benefit society. I am a textbook over-thinker, especially because I always think about how my actions or words can affect others around me or how they’ll be interpreted. In fact, I often come across as a very serious and anti-social person because I tend to be quiet in social situations. In actuality, I am really nice and friendly and love talking to other people. When someone sits next to me in class, a whole debate breaks out in my mind. “You should say hi to that person and ask them their name an make friends in the class!” “If you just say hi to this random stranger, they’ll think you’re weird.” “What are you going to say afterwards? If you don’t continue the conversation, the other person will think you’re awkward.” “If you say that joke, that can come across as mean.”

After having a huge internal monologue, the opportunity to say hi to the person next to me has passed, all because I over-think about saying hi to someone. Over-thinking does lead me to make good decisions though. Because of that, I always think about every possible situation that could come from a decision I need to make, and ultimately choose the one with less repercussions or the one that will help me get closer to my goal. But overall, I stray away from any decision that would harm others. Cicero also wrote about long-term gratification over short-term gratification, and I realized that I am always looking at the big picture when faced with a tough decision and base myself off of that. Who knew I was a real life Cicero?

Everyday we are bombarded with decisions to make. Especially at this age where it feels like every decision we make will have a direct affect of where we end up in the future. Decisions like who our friends are, what orgs we join, what classes we take, etc. This leads to us placing a lot of pressure on ourselves to try and be perfect all the time, while we might not think we are trying to be perfect the obsession with always making the right move is a symptoms of trying to achieve perfection. This often leads to overthinking. When I was younger I was always criticized for how impulsive I was and now I can barely really do anything because I am always worried about whether or not I am going to make the right possible choice. If we take the example that Cicero gave with the ruler who choose to stay captive instead of exchanging places with other captives, I don’t think I could have done that. A because like maybe I am selfish and B I just cannot imagine myself in that situation. Now if we make this situation into something more student like, for example a presentation, I mean if I realized that another group wasn’t ready but I didn’t want to present first I would never ask to go first A because that is rude to the other members of my group and B why you not ready to present thats unprofessional. Just like how the ruler stayed captive for the good of his people I will stay quiet and let the unprepared team go first for the good of my presentation group.

When looking back on attending the “How to Make a Tough Call” social sit down, I remembered some of the magnificent events I experienced when visiting Rome myself, and what all of this put together elicited in me.

I visited Rome when I was 13 as a birthday gift from my grandparents, and one of the days we spent in the ancient city, we saw the ruins of the ancient Roman forum. I remember thinking to myself when I was standing in the actual Roman senate itself that I was witnessing history itself. The ability to actually stand in the very spot that Augustus Caesar sported his throne and the other Roman senators sat and to traverse the forum that a plethora of vestal virgins, generals, legions and ancient commoners walked made me feel so insignificant, it reminds me of when I look at the pale blue dot by Carl Sagan. I could only hope that the journey has instilled in me some of the very values of morality and virtue Cicero once preached over the topography; thus bringing me to my experiences this evening. 

As I ponder the questions of morality posed at the social sit down, I couldn’t believe how relevant the events and morals Cicero spoke of in ancient Rome are today. The idea of tagging someone of hatred-filled thoughts and accusations translate to the idea of the hashtag, and the idea of the ring of invisibility to evade the glance of others corresponds to Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak in the movies. When looking back on some of the moral questions of taking one for the team and what is important when it comes to taking positions of power, I wonder how the moves I have made in my life measure to these standards. Relating to the idea of taking powerful positions, I feel I have not yet been posed with any sort of challenges here, but when it comes to taking one for the team this one hits close to home. Sometimes I fantasize about being the prince charming and saving the damsel in distress, as many cisgender men do, even at the risk of my own life. I suppose while lofty an idea, it poses the idea of when and how to actually go about doing this. I feel that I hope to use this idea to its fullest down the road when needed but, after sitting down and really thinking about it, to keep fantasy, fantasy and reality, reality.

You are lost in a forest. Mist surrounds you, and all you can see is two paths in front. They each have a sign besides it. One says pleasure, with small drawings underneath depicting extravagant material goods and unlimited wealth. The other only says virtue — the meaning of which is up to you to interpret. Which path would you choose?

Your conscience might be guiding you to choose virtue. We consider virtuous things to be morally correct, which means those things are for the greater good. Instead of solely benefiting an individual, they make the society better off. And rather than giving people short-term rewards, similar to planting a tree, they provide benefits in the long run.

Two thousand years ago, Roman philosopher Cicero explains good decision making with the term “expedience.” Expedient choices are the smart choices that actually benefit us. There are similarities in real expedient decisions. They are the choices that we won’t feel regretful when we look at ourselves in the mirror nor haunt us every day in bed. In one of Plato’s books there’s a story of the Ring of Gyges, a ring that empowers its owner to go invisible. Would you use the ring to conduct immoral behaviors? You can be invisible and steal wealth from anywhere you want, but it would not be an expedient choice if it makes you guilty for a lifetime. Expedient decisions are also those that focus on long-term benefits. In today’s society, we live in a global village. Any wrongful conducts can be broadcasted to the entire world through Facebook and Twitter. Doing things like bribery might give us momentary benefits, but they are not expedient at all because being tagged with those shameful labels are negatively life-changing.

It is pleasantly surprising how those ancient wisdoms are still applicable in today’s life. But although most virtuous conducts are still the expedient choice, the change in social values from a time period to the next one influences the meaning of virtue and expediency. Thus it is necessary for us to take into account of the time period when making decisions and analyzing choices.