A few months ago, Amy of The Life Optimist recounted this story:Kyra Sedgwick has been filming The Closer for seven seasons and recently decided to end the run. She says she was conflicted about it because it was a steady job for her as well as for the cast and crew. But her heart was no longer in it. As she told Redbook, she was torn over the decision for a long time until her husband Kevin Bacon finally said to her, "What about, just for tonight, you decide that you don't want to do another year?"
"Okay!" Kyra said. "But just for tonight, I can change my mind tomorrow." Then, she says, "as I lived with it, it felt so right to me."What a safe and simple way to test a tough decision and see how it feels, huh?
I have dreams, big ones; the kind of dreams most 20-somethings have accepted as childhood fallacies in place of more realistic hopes. I sometimes wish I could be satisfied with a steady monotony. But, I can't. And that is what makes taking chances like these--uprooting my life so that I can later arrange it in an even more rewarding place--worth it to me.Note: Out of necessity, I remind myself of this fact often.
Because at the end of the day, I do worry about making the wrong choice, I am afraid of making a huge mistake, and I am certainly taking a risk by making it. But then I think about the alternative. I think about what would be if I let fear keep me from fulfilling this dream that has manifested itself into a real life opportunity. And those thoughts are always scarier; scary enough to make me willing to try.
No matter if your chance is smaller, riskier, or of precisely the same immensity, I just sincerely hope you take it. Let's both make today that someday.
"I don’t think anyone changes their life until their current state of being is impossible to live in." -Elizabeth Gilbert
Photos from my first trip to France
