I dedicate this to the play-it-safers, the ones tempted by mediocre living, the individuals that are crushed under the slow poison of ordinary, the souls lured into stagnation.
This is a call, loud and clear, to get up, get out and getaway, to go get that adventure you've been dreaming. I'll warn you now, this piece will employ an unnecessary amount of cliches, but only the ones that are true.
Last week, I
turned 20 years old. If you know me well (or at all), it won't
surprise you in the slightest that I cried at midnight. I was, first
of all, missing my mom, and second of all, feeling quite old. Two
decades seems so long, and I was beating myself up for accepting the
life handed to me and perhaps not the one I chose. Another thing you
know if you know me well – I am very hard on myself. If I'm honest,
my two decades have been full of spontaneity and rash decisions and
random 10 hour drives to who knows where. I've taken plenty leaps of
faith in my time. I went to college in Florida, not knowing a soul. I
went on tour with three guys I barely knew. I just recently applied
for an internship on the other side of the United States and then
also one in another country. Last summer I packed my car and took off
to go wherever I ended up without my phone or a map or a plan. Then I
flew to New Jersey for a week to sleep on the floor of a girl I had
never even met. I've done countless risky things in my years, and
every time I did, I found that those were the best experiences I
could've ever asked for.
I have a sincere and quite firm belief that life doesn't happen to you, you determine life's trajectory. Sure, sometimes things are outside of your control, but sometimes that's just an excuse.
Figure out what you want and what you deserve, then go get it.
If you don't like your life, MOVE. If you're sick of the view out your backdoor, find a new one. If you resent your Monday morning alarm because you hate your job, quit. If your boyfriend treats you like you're a joke, drop him. If you get to a restaurant and hate the menu, don't stay. If your gut tell you that your major is wrong, I promise you'll thank yourself later for changing it. Try new things, hard things, scary things. Embrace all the diversity that life has to offer and remember that just because things are the way they are doesn't men they have to stay that way. Do not, please do not, settle for mediocre.
The life you imagine for yourself is out there if you have the courage to go and get it. Will you trip up? Yes. Will you second guess yourself? All the time. The day I was supposed to leave for college in Florida, I almost didn't get on that plane. I almost stayed in Indiana, almost stayed with my mediocre relationship, almost stayed in my below average lifestyle. But I forced myself onto that plane and it was the best decision I've ever made. The scariest choices are the best ones, in the end. So if you've been waiting to take that leap, I'm telling you now: MOVE, you won't regret it.
