Passing Thoughts

Take Chances!......or not

It seems like every inspirational story tries to instill a value of fearlessness into it's audience. The moral of the story is to take a chance; don't sit idly by and watch your life pass you by.

Here's a somewhat silly fact about me: One of my favorite movies is "The Girl Next Door." If you haven't heard of it, I don't blame you. It stars Emile Hirsch and Elisha Cuthbert, two hardly celebs. To sum it up, Emile's character is a smart, reserved kid who never takes a chance on anything. He meets Elisha's character, falls for her, and takes all kinds of chances for her.

It's a heart-warming, funny little story and when you walk away from it you feel like you should stop being so reserved and start taking chances. I've seen several other movies, books, articles, and even a couple speeches that all sent the same messages: take chances. After seeing/reading all of these, the idea gets reinforced and more engrained in me.

But...

When the time comes to take a chance, I don't. Neither does anyone else I know. We all live our comfortable lives at our own discretion. Yes, that guy a couple rows in front of me in class is awfully cute, and he might be single. I should go talk to him. Even sitting here writing this, I feel the same way. I really should go sit next to him and start a conversation. But I wouldn't be comfortable doing that. It's a chance that "The Girl Next Door" would advise me to take, but I haven't and I most likely won't.

Why?

I'm not really shy, probably more outspoken than most. Still I won't talk to him.

I'm sidetracking from the main purpose of this entry. It's not all about some guy that I hopelessly have a crush on, that's not it at all. I'm trying to understand why none of us actually take the chances that we seem to know we should. I know the positives outweigh the negatives in this (and most) situations. I think most people find themselves in the same position as me.

Yet we continue to drift along in our lives, avoiding and possible discomfort. Would people/society benefit if we were to actually take all these chances? What kind of world would that be? Would it be dramatically different?

I don't understand people, and I doubt that I am alone.