Opportunity Knocks

This is my first time writing for Odyssey. Initially, I was going to introduce myself, give you some background, let you know who I am, and give you a gist for what my future articles will be like. Instead, I will tell you why I am writing in the first place. I have always been passionate about writing and have contemplated starting blogs or writing columns. When I learned about Odyssey, I was quite excited because I could pick and choose what I wanted to write about every week, and it would give me the exact freedom I was looking for. I could explore the topics of fashion, sports/athletics, and comedy. But I was hesitant. To be completely honest, I wouldn't consider myself an open book and didn't feel comfortable posting my writings on social media for my friends to read. It is a small piece to a big picture.

Similar to many, I have so many ideas in my head of things I would love to do, and they all seem to be perfectly planned out. I am not talking about the necessities—like internships or jobs; those are aspects of our lives that help us further our careers. I am talking about the things we enjoy doing, not necessarily career-orientated, but things that make us happy that are often overlooked. While I was contemplating whether or not I wanted to send my application to Odyssey, there were so many excuses I came up with to not send my application. I think one obvious and popular excuse is “I don’t have time”, but the honest truth is that fear overcomes us. Not to be cliche, but fear holds us back from doing things that we really should spend our time investing in.

The other day in the car with my dad, he brought something to my attention: people think that the grass is always greener on the other side. The reality is that opportunity knocks on everyone’s door, so we all have the chance to be on the greener grass. It is the way you perceive that opportunity and take the chance that ultimately allows you to excel. We often hear the phrase “opportunities come and go”, but I don't believe that is true. I think that opportunities are everywhere and when they aren't necessarily “knocking on our door”, we can easily create them. My biggest dilemma with taking any opportunity in front of me has been the anticipation for the outcome, which I can attest has been the wrong approach.

I am not sure if it is safe to assume that this fear of taking the next step or taking chances is overcome by everyone, but it has been apparent for me in multiple instances. As an athlete, the fear is apparent when I play matches.I have really tried to work on getting rid of this fear that holds me back from playing to my potential with coaches and playing countless tournaments. A lot of the times, playing juniors, I wouldn't play the way I played in practice during matches just because I held this conservative mentality of “I can’t lose”, but in reality I would be playing worse because I was scared of losing. Im not saying having a conservative mentality pushes you back or makes you worse off because I don't think it does but I do think that kind of mentality holds you back from moving on to the next step or improving yourself. For me, I really have to push myself to take the opportunities that knock because I tend to usually focus on the negative side of what would happen when taking a chance. I think that all the negativity that comes with decision making is not,essentially, real; I think that all the negative aspects of something are ideas that we build up in our head that create a fearful mentality when it comes to doing anything outside of our comfort zone.

By writing for Odyssey, I am taking an opportunity and stepping out of my comfort zone and I hope this inspires you to do the same with whatever it is that interests you.