Brave or Stupid

What’s the difference?

Perhaps the way it’s interpreted is dependent on the outcome. if you’re successful, you’re brave. If you lose everything or die? Yup, you got it!

Exchanging my current life of givens and knowns for something I have longed for but really don’t have much experience with yet, I wonder where the intersection between the two lies.

I could continue on with my low-risk good benefit office job, except I’d never forgive myself. I know the toll of staying at a place that keeps you sedentary, staring at a screen, and going through the motions. It chips away at your health and spirit. You twist and turn inside, longing for freedom and adventure, shaking the bars and begging for the chance to live. Ignoring that crushes you.

We are taught to spend our best years hard at work so that one day, someday, we will be able to do the things we want, have the experiences we have neglected in exchange for our time at a day job. It is important to save for the future, don’t get me wrong. But we seem to think you can’t do both at the same time.

Depending on who I tell and what their values are, they likely label the adventure as either one or the other, or perhaps a little of both. Like beauty, the perception of this move is in the eyes of the beholder. And as the beholder of my life, my interpretation? I’m trying to see the decision as brave. Brave enough to shed almost all my possessions, my 40-hour work week identity, home, stability and routine, the “safety” we cocoon ourselves in. A place from which some never emerge. Brave enough to be myself and pursue something that makes me feel alive and present. Gives room for exploration and growth, a chance to make money pursuing a passion. Brave enough to risk a potentially foolish decision; brave enough to be called stupid.

Because think about it. Time is our most precious commodity; how much are you willing to sell? How much is life worth? Is it something that you can set aside as you spend most of your waking hours wishing you were somewhere else, doing something else? Because to me, that would be stupid. We are given one chance to be here. One chance as ourselves, whoever we may be. By not giving yourself the opportunity to pursue the things you want, at least to some degree, then what’s the point? Living on someone else’s terms. Brave or stupid?