Everyone has heard of the TV show The Office. If not, in a quick summary, it’s a TV show that follows the lives of a group of people that work in the office of a paper company. It has 9 seasons total and shows everything from the sales calls they have to make to the relationships, both romantic and nonromantic, that form. The series finale of this show was incredible. But the number one aspect of the series finale that severely caught my attention was a quote by one of the main characters Pam Beesly. It goes as follows: “It took me so long to do so many important things, it’s just hard to accept that I spent so many years being less happy than I could’ve been.” I rewinded this part of the finale a stupid amount of times because the quote snapped me into this certain mindset.
As strange as it sounds, I started thinking about board games. In any usual board game you spin or roll to move spaces to get to the end goal. It’s the best feeling when you get to move ahead a large amount of spaces. But usually when it comes to board games, there's a “skip a turn” or “move back __ spaces” card or spot. And with that, you’re forced either to wait or end up back tracking. Everyone knows the feeling of pure annoyance that this situation brings upon them. But then they realize that it’s just a board game and it doesn’t actually mean anything.
That's when I put two and two together. Life is like a board game. When you’re “winning”, life is great. Life is moving at a great pace and is very eventful. You seem to be flying across spaces towards your end goal, just like in a board game. You find yourself in a better mood and overall a happier person. But if you haven’t noticed by now, you’re not always “winning”. Life will throw you a curve ball and you'll find yourself landing on that “skip a turn” or “move back __ spaces.” Life seems uneventful and unbelievably boring. A lot of the time you’re waiting for something, anything to happen. You want to stop landing on a “skip a turn" space but you can’t seem to stop.Then after a while, out of the blue, a new opportunity will appear. But even though you’re miserable at the place you're at, it's comfortable and most of the time you will turn it down. Whether it’s a new job, a new friend, a new romance or a new school, change is inevitable. Sometimes it’s easier just to decline the opportunities the situation brings and try to make the situation as comfortable as possible.
But those opportunities that change brings, if fully accepted, can turn out to be the some of the best decisions of your life. Just like Pam Beesly said, you could spend so many years of your life happier if you just go for your goal, big or small, whatever it may be. So when you feel change coming, grasp it, and roll the heck out of those dice. Apply for that job you always wanted, join a new club at school, talk to the person you sit next to in class everyday, and if you think someone’s cute, tell them! Life’s too short to be spent waiting for change, make the change happen! And once you finally get out of that “skip a turn” rut, you’ll find yourself soaring ahead on this ultimate board game called life.
