A GOOD STORY

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” –Mark Twain






As I sipped my hot tea in a room full of duct tape and dial-up internet, I chatted with a close friend of mine about the importance of “a good story”. “A good story” is what I have assembled my life around up until this point; and I make no apologies for that fact. Adventure, meeting new people, trying new things, failing at new things and stepping out of your element into what could potentially become your element; those are the things that make a good story.

I will never judge a person’s character based on their likes and dislikes because I don’t ever want anyone judging me on the fact that I adore half-off Mondays at the thrift store or that I gag at the smell of tuna fish. We are all different and we should be proud of all the small quirks that make us just that. But I do find myself silently judging people at times as I wonder, “What story will they have to tell after they sleep their morning away? Why do people listen to their ipod on their entire train ride as opposed to speaking to the person next to them? That person is amazing on the computer so why don’t they pursue their passion for it? A friend of mine grits his teeth as he talks about travel because he can’t stand the thought of not doing it a moment longer; but even though it’s his number 1 on his dream list, it’s his number 9 on his action list. Where do people find a good story to tell when they are stuck in the prison of their own monotonous lives?”

Now I’ve noticed a cycle that secretly attacks the souls of many people. People go to school, AS THEY SHOULD (I will always be an advocate of an education). But then after they get their “real job”, people feel this unseen pressure that ignites a need to put certain articles in their lives that will forever ensure their happiness. They surround themselves with certain things; with certain devices; with assured commodities; with guaranteed material items. It’s ironic to me that those very things you worked so hard to obtain were the exact objects that created the mundane existence that you weren’t expecting to encounter. People sit on their leather couches in their living rooms and glare at the flat screen picture boxes in their dust free houses and it takes everything in them to keep from just breaking down and screaming “I know there is more out there!”

So how to you keep that sentiment from taking over your life? How do you get that good story to tell? How do you break out from the all too familiar feeling of being trapped? How do you spend your whole life not waiting for your whole life?
You find your dream. You don’t settle for watered down paradises. You explore until you find your element. You discover new things; about yourself and about others. You’d be surprised at how much you learn about yourself through others. Don’t make the mistake of being disappointed at the dreams that you didn’t go for. I have to often remind myself that a dream that spends its entire existence as a dream is not a dream at all. But instead it’s a taunting echo that repeatedly reminds you that you never tried hard enough. So we should all grab our dreams and run with them; never looking back.…..except only when conjuring up a good story. 