It's Time to Take a Risk, Sweetheart

My whole life I have played the safe game.  I did well in school because it was what I was told to do.  I played sports because that’s what you did after school.  I went to college because nobody ever told me I had other options.  And I graduated-as if I even had a choice. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I love, love, love the education I have been blessed to receive and I wouldn’t have changed that for the world.  And yes, I wanted to do well in school, and go to college, and graduate, and get a Master’s degree, and yadda, yadda, yadda…so on and so forth.  But never in my life have I ever felt like I took a risk on anything.  Everything has always worked out and doors have always opened for me at just the right moment.  It’s almost as if I wasn’t in control of my own fate- which now that I think about it, seems ironic to consider that you could ever even control fate in the first place.  And now, at 24, I feel like the life that I was supposed to be living has turned into a life of mediocrity. 

Mediocrity?  That is not what I envisioned for my life at all.

The whole idea of taking a risk scares the shit out of me.  It’s that fear of failure that I dread.  Or maybe it's the fear of the unknown.  But, the more I ponder my life, I see it taking one of two directions.  Either, I play the safe game and go through life out of harm’s way, never really knowing what I could achieve, or, I take a risk.  A huge risk.  And achieve things I never in my life imagined possible.

Now, take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk (thanks, Dalai Lama).  Did Bill Gates know what he was doing when he dropped out of college?  Yeah, I know what you are thinking.  He’s pretty much a genius but while he was at Harvard, he had no definite study plans.  (By the way, Bill Gates and I have the same birthday. And Julia Roberts, too.  Coincidence? You decide.)  You see, the problem with playing it safe is that certain things aren’t allowed to be explored.  Human potential is limited.  And creativity is snubbed.

So, here I am.  Twenty-four years old.  Intelligent.  Capable.  Desperate for a challenge.  I think it’s time to take a risk, sweetheart.