January 29th, 2012.
But the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t is the courage, willingness, and power to give up everything you have just for the possibility of having what you want.
So as ambitious college students, as we face many forks in our road, we shouldn’t forget that change, how terrifying it may be, can be good. And when the moment presents itself, when you realize that you should and want to go down that road of possibility, don’t leave the opportunity behind because it was risky, effortful, or that you were scared shitless.
Take a stand and follow your heart. Pursue the change because you never know where that road will take you. Don’t settle easily or for the status quo. And most importantly, once you’ve made your choice, hold on tight, enjoy the ride, and never look back.
Our American society values work ethic, the determination to see things through. But sometimes, we can be so consumed with our goals that we fail to see the opportunities that shy away from the main road, and sometimes, perhaps more destructively, the failures of our past decisions, and the desperate need for change.
Change is terrifying. Change is unpredictable. Change is risky, and we as humans are risk-averse. We don’t like throwing things up in the air and saying, well, to the hell with it. We like predictability, stability, and order, because those are the values our society was founded upon, because those are what allow us to make educated guesses about the future. In fact, we are so damn obsessed about stability, order and predicting our future that we have built entire institutions devoted to this single goal, to discover and develop theories that by definition must be consistent and stable in their predictions.
We underestimate our potential to adapt to change: we overestimate how long we’re going to enjoy that new toy, how much we’re going to suffer after breaking away from a bad relationship, how long we’ll have to learn to get used to a Mac after using a PC (sorry PC fans, just had to plug this one ;)); and of course as you’ve probably heard or said yourself, we as college students, as savvy and knowledgeable as we are, overestimate how much that GPA one semester will affect our lives.
What we fail to see is that humans have this incredible ability to adapt to change. We find ways to survive and get through even the most difficult situations, because that’s what we’ve been doing since the dawn of evolution (those who failed to adapt simply never survived), because this ability to modify our behavior is precisely what makes us human.
Think about it. The greatest minds in history not only persisted through the most difficult obstacles, but also knew when it was time to let go, even if it meant leaving everything behind and starting anew.
Take self-made millionaires who dropped out of college, whom our ambitious, entrepreneurial friends always talk about. Do you think people like Bill Gates were not scared that dropping out of school might be the wrong choice? That they could fail? That giving up an education they had worked so hard to earn the right to was easy? I would argue that no, it was not easy and they were scared shitless. I would even argue that they probably went through a long period of self-reflection, and perhaps even believed that it was one of the hardest decisions of their lives. But the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t is the courage, willingness, and power to give up everything you have just for the possibility of having what you want.
So as ambitious college students, as we face many forks in our road, we shouldn’t forget that change, how terrifying it may be, can be good. And when the moment presents itself, when you realize that you should and want to go down that road of possibility, don’t leave the opportunity behind because it was risky, effortful, or that you were scared shitless.
Take a stand and follow your heart. Pursue the change because you never know where that road will take you. Don’t settle easily or for the status quo. And most importantly, once you’ve made your choice, hold on tight, enjoy the ride, and never look back.
In January 2012, I had no plans to move to Paris in the future. Nor did I have any desire to move permanently abroad. How quickly things change. :)