A few days ago, I was driving somewhere I had never been before with my favorite songs blasting and the windows rolled down. Apple Maps occasionally interrupted my ride with reminders of my next turn. One moment, I was on a familiar highway, and the next, I was turning onto a road I had never seen before, suddenly questioning my navigation and the route I selected. Before I had the chance to turn around, I was enveloped by beautiful green trees that had come alive with the transition from spring to summer. I continued down the unmarked road, wondering why I had ever dreaded coming this way.
So often, we stick to the familiar simply because we know it is safe, but have you ever stopped to consider what might happen if you decided to do something new and scary instead of constantly adhering to the easiest option?. If you try a new food today, it may be your favorite food by tomorrow. If you let yourself make the wrong turn, you may find a beautiful new landscape you hadn’t dreamed of seeing minutes before. Of course, there is always a possibility that the unfamiliar is scary for a reason, but you will never know until you take the leap and try.
Fear of the unknown sometimes holds us back from doing what might lead to the next best thing in our lives. Many people live their lives without ever adventuring off the beaten path. Day by day goes by without anything that differentiates one moment from the last. I don’t know about you, but I want to live a life full of new and spontaneous experiences that set each day apart from the last. One day in the future, I want to look back and feel no regrets because I took the leap and tried new things, whether they worked out in my favor or not.
In his famous poem, “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost writes, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—/ I took the one less traveled by,/ And that has made all the difference”. Every day we are given a choice to either stick to the well-worn path or explore a new option. Making the choice to be brave and act spontaneously can lead to beautiful outcomes if you allow it. Take this as your sign to make the leap, whatever that may look like. Get a new Starbucks drink, talk to someone new, change your major, have a difficult conversation or take the backroad that you’ve never seen before. Take the leap, take the road less traveled by and take a chance, even when it’s scary.