Choose You Own Adventure Takes Courage

I’ve often said that life is like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. I was reminded of that recently while listening to a podcast featuring the actress Millie Bobby Brown. You probably know her as Eleven from “Stranger Things.” She explained that she was living with her family in Orlando when she told her dad that if they moved to Hollywood, she would make it. She was barely 10 and, backed by an acting coach, the family packed up four kids and moved to Hollywood. 

That’s quite a swing.  

I remember as a kid getting stuck on a page in a Choose Your Own Adventure book,  struggling with a choice - do I follow the strange, shadowy figure into the woods or do I head home to do homework and take a nap? Me, always the adventurer, almost always turned to page 14 and followed the shadowy figure.  

It rarely ended up well. 

Could you imagine presenting your parents with the idea of moving across the country  - to become an actor - at 10-years-old? I don’t even know if my parents would have let me finish the sentence before busting into laughter. Millie’s parents, however, didn’t just follow the shadowy figure, they gave it a ride in the family station wagon and moved across the country. For them, it worked out pretty well. 

There are many examples of people taking big swings with their life. Taylor Swift famously asked her parents to move to Nashville so she could be a country singer, and we all know how that turned out.  

Locally, my good friend Chuck Williams left his 20 year career at the age of 40 to chase his lifelong dream of doing radio. He went on to have quite the career and become an Augusta radio legend. Honestly, I use his example a lot. He’s living proof that you can start over at any age. 

I have chosen many adventures in my Choose Your Own Adventure life and, to be honest, they have worked out. Gambling with my career and, essentially, my family, by following a dream opportunity in Las Vegas worked out, even when it technically didn’t. Sure, my time in Vegas was cut shorter than I had hoped. But following that adventure built my personal business and led me back home to Augusta and HD 98.3.  

I’ve found, throughout life, that most adventures work out. Sometimes not as you initially intended but, as long as you keep your priorities in order and your vices in check, it works out. Maybe your adventure won’t lead you to Netflix superstardom like Millie Bobby Brown, but you owe it to yourself to at least try. You only get one life. You might as well live it. 

Choose well.