She's right...

Today in Freshman Seminar we finished skimming through the good parts of a movie that we started Monday. The movie is The Contender. Now I don't know if anyone reading this has seen that movie (or if anyone is even reading this, LOL), but it is about a female senator that is being considered to replace a recently deceased Vice President. It's a very good movie and I'm now planning to watch it in its entirety. During the course of the movie the people that oppose Sen. Hanson dig up some "dirt" on her sexual past...namely that she allegedly participated in a gangbang at the age of 19 (complete with pictures). Sen. Hanson, however, refuses to discuss it with anyone even though it severely hurts her public image. While speaking to the President in confidence, she tells him that she won't answer the questions because they had no business being asked in the first place and that by answering them she will be "saying" that to ask them was ok. He asks if she is willing to jeopardize her political future over this, to which she has an answer that has struck a profound chord with me:

"Principles only mean something when you stick to them when its inconvenient."

When I heard this line...I let it sink in and I said to myself, "She's right." And then I thought...what about my principles? What are they exactly? Would I abandon my principles the first time they were an inconvenience? I don't like to think so, but as my principles have never been tested (indeed, I don't even know exactly what they are), I really have no idea. This is scary to me. What if I'm doomed to live life as an unprincipled person that doesn't give a damn about anything or anyone and has no morals?

That's depressing...