Lesson Well Learned

Recently, a close friend of mine called me up. Almost before I even said “hello,” he took off into an energized rant, telling me all about his newly formulated life plans and whatnot. He hardly took the time to catch his breath between sentences, he was so enthused. He went on to describe plans to get into shape for a marathon, learn a new form of martial arts, and later down the road, climb Mt. Everest!
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Growing up - a lot of people believe they’re done once they pass their 20’s, but I believe that this is a harmful misconception. The idea of an end to growth causes a person to fall into a phase in which they become consumed by the mundane in order to remain in their comfort zone. The problem with this is that as soon as a comfortable location is reached, people seem to stop trying to improve themselves, and instead just let life continue on past them. They get distracted by silly things that, in the grand scheme of life, mean nothing. Watching too much television, playing too many games, surfing too often on Facebook - how many of these activities do you take part in? There’s really nothing wrong with these activities - watching the tube, jumping on some goombas, or keeping track of how many comments you’ve gotten today - but the problem arises when these activities mask a lack of personal fulfillment. If you think this sounds ridiculous, think back a bit - how did you feel about your life the last time you took a long, hard look at it? Is there anything you wish you had done? Is there anything you wish you knew how to do? Is there anything about yourself that you’d like to change?

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Ever notice how almost every single time you spend time planning an event, something goes wrong and the event never goes as intended? It’s a frustrating phenomenon, but it doesn’t have to be. It may never be possible to gather enough control on your world to safely assume that any plans you make will be carried out properly, but it is very possible to control your reaction, both physically and emotionally, to the world’s endless curveballs.
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I’ll start this post off with a little anecdote from my childhood.

During the fourth grade, my teacher, Mr. Raykovics, always tried to incorporate a fun activity into the learning process. At this age, I happened to have been a very talented mathematician, so I would leave his class during his math lesson and would attend a higher grade level’s class. However, one particular day, for some reason or another, I stayed in Mr. Raykovics class. On this day, the class played a nice game of “flash cards”. Half the class lines up on one side of the classroom, and half on the other. The two sides would then compete to see who could answer each flash card first.
The game began and played out rather normally for a while, but as it went on I noticed something very peculiar. There were only about 10 or 15 different flash cards in the whole deck. I smiled to myself and immediately began memorizing the order in which each card appeared. This way, I’d know the answer before the card was even shown! I still remember what happened the next time it was my turn. In the perfect voice of a cheesy game show host, Mr. Raykovics questioned, “Are you two ready?” “Ready!” shouted my opponent. “The answer is 24,” I spoke calmly. For an instant, it was silent. Then everyone laughed. Mr. Raykovics pulled out the card…

Everyone stopped laughing.
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A friend of mine recently asked me to go skydiving with him, an offer to which I promptly agreed. Later that night, the topic came up in a discussion I was having with my father. Being curious, I asked whether he’d ever wanted to try the deed. “No way!” he responded, “not in a million years!” Envoking even more curiousity, I pressed further, asking why not. His response; “Because it scares me too much!”. That’s funny, I thought, because that’s the exact same reason why I so quickly decided to go through with it. This made something click in my head, though, because despite the popularity of skydiving, I know so many people that react exactly like my father. I really think that society as a whole has been gripped a little too tightly by a fear of the wrong kind.
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