Learning to Throw More Snakes

"He was enjoying himself as much as he was able. It is youth's felicity as well as its insufficiency that it can never live in the present, but must always be measuring up the day against its own radiantly imagined future- flowers and gold, girls and stars, they are only prefigurations and prophecies of that incomparable, unattainable young dream."

"The life I think about is so much better than this..."

"There's more to living than being alive..."

Hi, blogosphere, sorry I haven't been around for a while. Since my last entry I have returned to college and...and...that's about it. Not all that much as happened. In fact, it was this very realization, coupled with a recent Cracked article, that has once again caused me to analyze my own life in light of my ideal life.

"Mixing the advice from a humor website and psychology is always a good idea, right?"

Anyway, the Cracked article, "How to reinvent yourself during your first week of college," ended with the author urging a new college student "to throw more snakes at things," aka take more risks and learn to step outside of your comfort zone.

Although it would seem that following Buchholtz's advice should come naturally for young people, this often isn't the case. So the question becomes, why would any college student choose to stubbornly stick to a routine and ignore chances to have fun adventures and meet new people?

"People including girls. Albeit probably not Emma Stone, unfortunately."

I'm hypothesizing that there are at least two major reasons as to why people choose not to be more adventurous and risk-taking. The first is quite simple, some people, many people that I've observed actually, are quite content with their relatively straightforward lives. And you know what? As long as they're not completely shunning social interactions, there's nothing wrong to appreciating a simple routine.

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, as long as you don't start bragging to an imaginary Cortana about how many tickers you killed that one time."

Its the second reason that people choose to stick to bland routines that can become problematic. I think that almost everyone, at one point or another, shies away from adventure due to a fear of failure/ disappointment. Even though this fear can sometimes be rational and beneficial (you probably shouldn't just drop everything you're working on in college to travel the country and pursue your dream of being a sports/ video game/ sheep enthusiast), it often hinders us from living life to the fullest.

"Don't judge me man."

And of course, while most of us spend our time contemplating if we've succeeded in meeting our personal adventure quotas each weekend, we also have to deal with an exceptional few who seem fearless, even bored, when dealing with situations that would for the rest of us be very challenging.

"Hey, girl, can I have your number? I don't actually want it; I just want to burn it in front of all those awkward single guys at the bar."

There are few days that go by when I don't wonder if those guys (and girls too for that matter) realize how good they have it. Its not that I dislike my own life. I have been blessed with plenty of friends and hobbies with which to pass my time; it just would be nice to spend a day with the inherent boldness and confidence that comes so naturally to them. Come to think of it, this is probably the largest reason why many college students love to drink. It allows them to temporarily replace their fearful and timid selves with a swaggering Carpe Diem personality. And honestly, although drinking is often abused (there's a shocker), who's to blame anyone for wanting the chance to be a new, bolder, more fearless version of him or herself?

Alcohol

Making you think you are like this...

When you look this this.

Anyway, I guess the point of this post isn't to lament the fact that we can't all be confidant "Thor's" but rather to urge all of us to strive to "throw a few more snakes," even if it isn't easy. As a college senior, I would especially like to urge high school and college kids to go out there and really try to live life. No, this isn't giving you a free license to blow off responsibilities or act like idiots; rather, its a suggestion meant to free you to live up to your fullest potential as an adult/ becoming an adult human being.

I realize this post is already getting incredibly long-winded so I'll leave you with a brief story. I went to Pittsburgh yesterday to drop a friend off at the airport. Although I could have just left afterwards, another friend and I decided to stick around in the city for a while and go to a Pirates game. Unbeknownst to me at the time, two friends from high school (including one from the Navy who I hadn't seen in years) were in Pittsburgh. Because I stuck around, I happened to be in the right place at the right time to catch up with some good old friends. I don't want to come off as the old guy who tells random stories, but I thought this was a really cool experience that I wanted to share. And hey, you have to admit there's a lesson there. I had an adventure (a little one, but it still counts for me), and my life was better for it. Now if I could just gain a bit of that boldness around girls I'd be all set.

"Can I hav yo number? Can I hav it?"