Take a risk

Think about the life you’re living. You sit in classroom after classroom and listen to stories about what the world is like – the real world, that is. The people that lay their exhausted heads on the desks surrounding you are the same people you won’t remember the names of in just a couple of years. You tell yourself that you’re in high school – you’ve still got your entire life ahead of you. Countless possibilities, endless moments waiting to be grasped. But, they’re not really endless, are they?

Because before you know it, the real world you heard all those stories about will be the one you are living in. The dream university you laboured to get into is nothing but a memory, and a blurry one at that. Your life has become an endless cycle of bills, banks and supermarket trips- all those things you used to hear adults complain about. You were naive to think they wouldn’t happen to you. And you would do anything to rewind a little, get back the moments that seemed to slip through your fingers. You say you’d do things in a different way. So, tell me, would you take the risks you never took?

This life you’ve been given – it’s just too short. It’s too short to not go for the chances that make your mind whirl and skin tingle. It’s too short to hide away at the mere scent of rain and it’s too short to search for shade at the sight of the sun. It’s too short to fear, to doubt, to question. So go up to that girl and tell her about the butterflies that flutter in your stomach whenever you hear her name. Tell her she’s consumed your thoughts. Relish in her smile, the way her emerald green eyes dance. Stop worrying. Don’t cry about one failed psychology test. Eat that last slice of pepperoni pizza your heart begs for. Forget what anyone else thinks. Just live. Throw the word ‘love’ around as if it could never run out because, guess what? It can’t. Hold hands a little tighter, laugh a little harder; dream a little bigger than you ever thought was possible. And, for once in your life, take a risk.