Life, Cowards, and Adventures

    What is it about life that is so spectacular? Is it the fact that every person only has one? (Well, unless you believe in reincarnation.) It could be the fact that you get to choose what you do with it. You could choose to throw it away like a pile of unwanted garbage or experience the adventures that come along with it. Either way it's your choice. So, why am I talking about this? Why would I want to have such deep thoughts about life and broadcast them to the world? Well, why does anyone do anything?
   
   It all started yesterday morning when I was eating breakfast with my sister. While we were eating, I was telling her about all my plans for my next year at the University of Minnesota Morris. She was oohing and ahhing about them as she was looking at a travel magazine. She looked up from the magazine and, she said "you should go here," while pointing at a picture of something in Vancouver. "You should go on a road trip with your friends and go here." It sounded like a great idea, but something that I would never do. Taking risky chances are just not my thing. I admit that I like control a little too much, and that the plan that my sister proposed to me just seemed to have too many opportunities for bad things to happen. When I protested the idea, she put down her magazine and looked me in the eye. It was then that I knew that she was going to tell me a bit of wisdom about life, and something that I would need to take seriously. "Taylor," she said, "you need to do things in life. Travel while you can". It was that somber tone that made me realize that I was a coward.
 
   I was a coward because I wasn't taking chances or just doing something without analyzing the consequences first. That was something that I didn't want. I didn't want to think back on my life later and wish that I could have done more, experienced more, or even loved more.
   
    Maybe it's time to take some very good advice and throw caution to the wind. So here it is, I challenge myself to do things and experience life when I would have been afraid to. How is this going to work? I decided that I would start small. I will try to make little decisions that I usually wouldn't do that would make me happy. Then once a week, I will do something bigger like volunteering somewhere or going to a movie by myself. Anything that I haven't done yet but wanted to do. Then once a month I will do something even bigger, such as getting a tattoo, going on a blind date, skydiving or even holding a snake. All things I have wanted to do, but have been too afraid to do in the past.

I have no idea where this will lead me, but I am positive that it will be an adventure to remember.