Losing Balance

Predicting is a task that everybody does, constantly. However, the range that the different predictions can account for is just as large as the number of people that make predictions. People predict to compare which actions are possible to the actions they want to do, they predict the possible outcomes from various actions and then they decide which action that they want to do based on the predicted results. These predictions generally happen very quickly, and most of the extreme predictions are disregarded so quickly that their existence is not even recognized. With predicting scenarios, there are actions and situations that are considered undesirable and categorized as bad, and there are scenarios that are desirable and categorized as good. Of course there is no universally good or bad definition, but there are always good and bad possibilities for everyone, and there are always choices.

The choices that some people make are always going to receive criticism from different people, and generally I am accepting to the different choices that people make. However, at times, there are some actions and decisions that I cannot understand at all. The most questioned decision (conceived and carried out by someone else) that has directly involved me happened yesterday. While walking outside of my school after class had ended, I looked behind me and saw that three black (race is important for this happening) males were right behind me. I then felt one of them grab me from behind in a manner so that all I could do was kick my legs. I only recognized one of the people there. The person that I did recognize was someone that had enjoyed having a physical presence around me (although not a frequent one), and liked to "pretend" to beat me up at times. When I was grabbed by his "friend", I though that this was some type of playful (yet overly physical) joke. Very quickly the joke had finished being partially entertaining and became very annoying. I was waiting for the person holding me to let me go and the two other people to leave me alone; that did not happen. The person that was holding me forced me to ground and began smashing my head down into the ground (the smashing was not through constantly striking my head, but with a constant, very strong, very forceful, uncomfortable, and painful pressure). I could not see anything and had no idea what was happening, it honestly was one of the most frightening experiences (if not the most frightening) that has ever happened to me. The frightening aspect of what happened was that I had no idea how far they would go to do or get what they wanted, one of them might of had a weapon, they might have used more and more force until I was unconscious, they could have done anything, and I had no idea what. I could not breathe as my head was forced into the ground, all I felt was the increasingly painful force on the side of my head, all saw was the dark color of the person's parka, and all I heard were the two other people yelling "run his pockets, grab it, get it, run". Soon the person got off of me, then after forcing the iPod I was grasping in my hand free, began to run into a nearby soccer field, and disappeared.

The predictions that these three people had made obviously was one that was appealing to them and seemed like the best option at the time. How could that happen? How could someone decide to carry out that type of action and seem to enjoy doing it? Over the next could of weeks (or however long it takes), I will be coming up with possible reasons and discussing any related thoughts and ideas on how some actions (especially absolutely ridiculous ones such as the one described above), could happen.