Make A Choice

Make A Choice By Dana Null

Phineas and Ferb was one of my favorite tv shows when I was younger. They were brothers that would spend their summer doing amazing things with their friends ¨like finding a dodo bird, painting a continent, an driving [their] sister insane¨, as told in the into. In one of the episodes, Phineas’s friend, Baljeet, was overcome with incredible indecisiveness, so they made a device that allowed Baljeet to split into two Baljeet's everytime that he came across a decision. Sadly, this device isn't real and we have to experience our choices one at a time. I know there have been times when I could have benefited from such a device. “What do you want?”... “I don’t know”... “Oh come on, you know what you want”... “No, actually I don’t… What do you want”... “I don’t know.” So go my friends when we go out for food. An endless dilemma of each person not wanting more food, nor less, and not wanting the other person to pay more, nor less, nor do they want anyone to feel less, nor guiltfully more. So I do as I do and step up to the plate, “Hi, I would like a pint of

1

snickers ice cream.” The cashier tells me the price and I pull out my gray faux-leather wallet. Fumbling around for the right amount of change, I can hear my friends finally making up their minds. I find the correct change and hand it to the cashier. Bing. The register opens and the cashier hands me the extra two dollar bill I accidently handed her. “Oh, thanks.” She turns toward the aisle of ice cream without looking at me and grabs a scoop. As she stuffs the frozen chocolate-caramel-goodness into a pint sized container, I hear my friends getting closer to making up their minds. “I know! I will get a pint of this… what is this?… nevermind, maybe I want that flavor over there with the weird name.” “that means it is rum flavored.” “is it? Hm… I don’t know” a third friend then interrupted with “oh yes! I’ll take the weird one! Hey mam, can I get a pint of the… this flavor”. “Sure responds the cashier” My first friend, Dallas, quickly adds that she would like the same flavor and my second friend, Daniel, says he would like the limeade ice

Image on page 2 from Phineas and Ferb tv series on Disney Channel.

cream. I chuckle as I see them choose their ice cream with a domino like effect. Driving back to school, I ask McKenzie why she chose the rum flavored ice cream, “I thought rum is supposed to be like really gross.” “Well you see, rum is a form of alcohol and I want to drink, heck I should go on a cruise or something that enters foreign waters so that I don’t have to wait for four years” she chuckled to end her response. Dallas went “ooh, I didn’t even think of that, that is soooo smart, I’d do that with you. L. O. L. what about you?” I chuckled and answered with a short, “I don’t think drinking is good for me, so I will never drink.” Daniel spoke up with his usual, “I don’t think it is really that bad for you, but I wouldn’t do it either.” “Hehe, suckers” joked McKenzie… I pull into the school parking lot. There are plenty of parking spaces to choose from and I pick the closest available spot to the school. Before I pull into the spot, I glance at my radio that has the time

beautifully displayed. “Crap. Guys the second bell is ringing right now, we are late as of right now.” “Dang Dallas, you should have chosen faster,” taunted McKenzie. “Faster? I chose second. It’ll be ok Dana, they don’t know that we are late to school for ice cream.” “Actually,” I responded, “I didn’t eat my ice cream in the car cause I’m driving.” “Well, then only you will get in trouble, and the rest of us will be fine.” “Thanks for the vote of confidence Daniel.” “No problem.” Our inability to pick ice cream flavors in under 10 minutes led to our being late for school, luckily I didn’t get into any trouble. How many times would it have to happen before I would get into trouble though? I never found out, because I made sure that everyone knew that we had to make faster decisions. We were late a few more times, but just by a hair and we never got into trouble.

2