Amanda Horne: We can choose to be lucky and blessed

I believe in luck. I also believe that I may, very possibly, be the luckiest person I have ever met, and choose to feel lucky and blessed -- do you?

We all have the ability to choose how any situation affects us, and by choosing to see the good in it can change your life.

Let's start from the beginning. I was born in Africa -- Rhodesia to be exact, now known as Zimbabwe and one of the most beautiful countries you could ever imagine, wonderful people, rich in history and natural resources:

Eden.

My luck started at birth, when I was put up for adoption and was chosen by the most loving and caring parents that any child could ask for. My older brother, Peter, was also adopted at birth, and he and I had a wonderful childhood living on a farm.

Yes, I hear that line in my head all the time from the movie "Out Of Africa" with Meryl Streep -- "I had a farm in Africa."!

Mum & Papa worked hard to build a wonderful life for us. My mother started a school and a clinic on the farms, and Papa grew tobacco, maize and bred cattle. We had cows and horses to ride (I still have the picture of my papa leading sweet Blume the Simmental cow around with me on her back), dogs, cats, rabbits - land to run on and plenty of playmates.

In the 1970s, our parents chose to make the hard decision to leave Rhodesia and everything they had worked for when war broke out.

Life on a farm had changed dramatically; instead of worrying about lions or snakes outside, there was a far greater danger now. My brother and I are great shots -- we had to learn to defend ourselves in case of attack. We traveled in convoys because of landmines, and at school we had terrorist drills -- we thought it was normal!

They chose to leave everything they had worked for -- for us, their children. Their dream was for us to grow up knowing peace, not fear. I recall so clearly the day, about six months after we had arrived in England, receiving the news that one of my playmates had been killed in a terrorist attack -- lined up against a wall with her grandparents and shot.

I look back and think what on earth would have happened to us all if we had stayed and, even more so, what would have happened if Diana and Trevor had not fallen in love and married, if they had not wanted to adopt two babies -- what would have happened to two orphans in a war-ravaged country that is still to this day in turmoil and famine? Where on earth would we have ended up?

These are the choices that Peter and I had no part of, but affected our entire lives so deeply. These were HUGE choices, but the small everyday choices can mean just as much. We hardly ever know the decisions we make that change our lives, mostly because they are little ones -- should I turn left or right, should I go to that party or not?

If not for those "small" choices, I certainly would not have traveled the world, met lifelong friends, have the most incredible partner in life and get to call this paradise called Bradenton, home.

I can't say that all of my choices have been great ones (imagine those old pictures with the 1980s hairdos!) but they were MY choices and I stand by them. Even the bad ones can lead to good ones -- we should never give up because of a bad choice.

Sometime ago I attended a conference in Orlando for PACE Center for Girls. Some girls from PACE Leon put together a thought-provoking skit to show us, the leaders of PACE, that each and every decision we make as board members affects the lives of every single PACE girl and her family.

The girls started out with each speaking in turn, talking about decisions that others had made that changed their lives forever -- parent, sibling, grandparents, school friends, teachers, strangers on the bus, neighbor and us, the board members.

Choices regarding love, friendship, education, hurt, abuse, relationships -- each one of these made an impact on these girls' lives, good and bad. There are 2,100 PACE girls throughout Florida, and these girls are learning that it is their choice how they deal with everything that happens around them.

We need to realize that no matter what choices we make in life, they are OUR choices, good, bad, ugly. We need to embrace them, own them, with the knowledge that they do not only affect us personally, but all of those who surround us -- our family, our friends, our co workers and yes, even the strangers we meet on the street.

So let's smile at that stranger, say hello to our neighbor, do that random act of kindness, volunteer at a school or shelter. Because what YOU choose to do will help someone else make a choice to make it a good day or a bad day.

Amanda Horne, community relations coordinator for the Women's Resource Center of Manatee and the board chair at PACE Center for Girls of Manatee, can be reached at amobamanda@gmail.com

This story was originally published February 15, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Amanda Horne: We can choose to be lucky and blessed ."