COLUMN: Live for the moment
I was never one to take chances until I realized life doesn’t always wait for you to take them.
As a child, it took years for me to muster up the courage to do the monkey bars. At little league baseball practice, I would move out of the way when the ball came toward me a bit too fast.
My lack of taking chances and risks is probably why I have yet to break a bone or even sprain one (knock on wood).
Even at sleepovers, I pretended I was sick just so I could go home and know my parents wouldn’t suddenly die while I was sleeping elsewhere; even when the sleepover was next door.
Obviously, these are all fears any child might have and, over time, outgrow. But as we get older, our fears don’t disappear; they just develop from the fear of falling off the play set to things like worrying about if we’re good enough. We tend to think more about what other people will think of us rather than our personal opinions of ourselves.
Although, some life-altering events presented to me in the past year stop me from worrying about what might happen or what people will think if I do something and to instead just take chances and live in the present.
Losing a childhood friend to Leukemia within six months of being diagnosed and watching my best friend lose her hair in chunks to Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the same time really changed my perspective on life. Adding a parent nearly passing away, and my perspective on life changed even more.
It made me realize they didn’t have time to worry about what people may think of them, and in reality, neither do any of us.
It’s taught me and prepared me to not think ahead and to only live for the time I am given each day.
If I want something, I find a way to get it. If I feel a certain way about someone or something, I say it. If I want to do something, I do it. Even if it means I may regret it later on.
After seeing people close to me have their life in jeopardy, second guessing is not always something I suggest for others to do.
If you want to do something, don’t deny yourself.
Sure, you may not always have those amazing feelings of anxiety, fear or stress in your life from worrying, but they probably weren’t that great anyway.
