Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Do one thing everyday that scares you.”
I think that’s good advice. In my own life, I know I sometimes get stuck in a rut or become afraid to try new things. I’m stuck in my own little “comfort zone,” and then I end up missing out. Sometimes it’s because I’m afraid; other times it’s because I just don’t want to take that jump.
But lately, I’ve begun listening to Eleanor’s advice. Not all of my jumps are big, risky adventures like climbing to the top of Mount Everest-but each of them has helped me in some way or another.
I’m pretty sure everyone has heard of the SMU bubble-that invisible circle drawn around our campus and surrounding area in which we seem to encase ourselves. I know that not everyone on campus lives and dies in the bubble. But some of us rarely leave it.
Why bother leaving, anyways? The bubble is nice and safe. It has everything we need. And yet, staying in the bubble is exactly what we shouldn’t be doing. We should constantly be exploring-searching for new things and meeting new people from all walks of life.
What is life, anyways, without a little adventure? Whether it’s taking a new route home or scaling Everest, it’s the experience from which you benefit. What would life be like if Charles Lindbergh had decided that crossing the Atlantic was just too risky? Or if those guys that signed the Declaration of Independence had decided that the risks of failure outweighed the benefits of revolution? We’d probably be drinking tea every afternoon with a side of crumpets just wishing that we could somehow travel to France in a shorter amount of time. Let’s face it-that doesn’t seem like such a bad thing. But look at what we would have missed.
So what the heck-go take an adventure. This is my challenge to you. I don’t care if it’s just talking to that weird kid in the back of the class who’s always reading some obscure author, or taking a random road trip to Canada with just five peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in your arsenal.
Because, as Eleanor put it: “The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.”
-Meredith Shamburger
News Editor
