The Right thing; influences on decisionmaking

As Elie Wiesel once said,”Let us not forget, after all, that there is always a moment when the moral choice is made. Often because of one story or one book or one person, we are able to make a different choice, a choice for humanity, for life.” As he states in this quote, A story, book or even a person can influence people on the choices they make.

My closest Grandpa, Paul casas jr. had partially raised me, and had a large influence on my life. One day, he had a choice. On his wedding day, he received a letter saying that he had been drafted to the military, and would later be stationed in Fort Hood, Texas, and sent to Germany twice. He served his time 1963-1965 in the military working with Howitzers  and learning how to operate them. He was an NCO  of the 2nd Armored Division. Luckily, he did not see combat. He had been let out of Fort hood in the nick of time, and missed the Vietnam war. He was a week away from being discharged when  father in law was dying. They were extremely close and he was yearning to see my grandpa before he died. My grandfather talked to the Chain of command, he could get a hold of, but none would give him permission to leave, as his father-in-law was  not direct family. Although it had been his last week, and he was wearing civilian clothing, he was still not allowed to leave. Feeling compelled to go see his father in law, he made a  tough and illegal decision. He went left and flew from Texas to Santa Paula to see my grandmother’s father before he died. When he arrived, he walked in and said to his Father in law,” I’m Here,” and at that moment, he died. He had waited for My Grandfather to come. He did what he thought was right, illegal or not, because family comes before anything. Even the law.

    At the beginning of the school year, we had a class trip to the Sequoia national park for five days. We hiked 9-10 hours a day, then a night hike for 2 hours then to bed. We would only have a couple hours to ourselves, going up into the mountains when we had the chance, hopping around on rocks, and soaking up the beautiful view. On one occasion, we were on a 10 foot rock, jumping down to another smaller rock, when one of my classmates yells, “BEAR.” I look to where he is pointing, and there is a Black bear and two cubs. We ran. I was having bad luck with animals, so I decided to call home. My Grandfathers story popped into my head, and I decided to do the right thing, and finish the trip like everyone else.