Life, for most people, is not so much “a bowl of cherries” as a succession of difficult decisions. Consider a typical young woman entering her senior year in high school. During the years ahead she will have to make many important choices. Stay in school, or enter the labor market? Where to live? Marriage? When and with whom? Children? When and how many? How much labor force participation? How much work at home? And there are other choices, such as those concerning smoking and alcohol, that can profoundly affect her life and the lives of those close to her.
To say that this young woman will make choices is not to say that these choices are unconstrained, Unless she has great mathematical aptitude, a career as a theoretical physicist is not, for all practical purposes, a choice that is open to her. Similarly, it is not realistic for her five-foot six-inch brother to aspire to be a professional basketball player. The fact that choices are constrained, however, does not mean that all choice is eliminated. Individuals still choose, but within their constraints.