Chasing Second Chances

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. I've seen this quote hundreds of times and always thought, "Yeah, I get it. You only live once, and most of the time you're not really living. You miss out on life. Blah blah blah..." Recently, this quote hit me really hard. I've had so many great opportunities, wonderful chances that I was too scared to take. Too scared of people judging, too scared of things going wrong, and not even considering all of the things that could go right. Every once in a while, life throws you into a crazy, unimaginable situation and for a moment, you sit there in the midst of an electric atmosphere and are perfectly, and incandescently happy. For a moment every little thing is right in the world. Sitting on a curb on a warm spring night, wrapped around your coral blanket without a single care in the world, while the crickets sing you their lullabies. In that moment everything, everything is right. You don't worry about the dawn coming and breaking the comfortable darkness. But soon, dawn does come and lights up everything and fear creeps in and you hesitate, and in that hesitation the moment slips away from your cold fingers, only to become a warm memory in your red, beating heart. In the mundane things of everyday life, you often think of those magical, fleeting moments and can't help but imagine, "What if?". What if, instead of hesitating you decided to run away with the wind? Where would you be now? What if you ended up halfway across the world, fulfilling the desires of your gypsy heart? What adventure would you be on if you didn't hesitate, and ran full speed with an empty suitcase and a full heart? They say you miss 100% of the chances you don't take. Well, I'd rather live my life taking chances, risking it all. I'd rather look back at my failed attempts and think, "Oh, well.", than sitting all alone in my bedroom at 2am thinking, "What if?".