George Bernard Shaw is quoted as saying “Youth is wasted on the young.” The older I get, the more this rings true with me. When I was in my prime adventure days, my early 20s, I was fearful of failure, impatient for things to happen RIGHT NOW, and most definitely someone who pretended to have it all together in order to appear competent. I am still willing to pretend, to some extent, with the belief that “fake it til you make it” is a valid life skill. But how many times did I do the easier thing when the harder thing was just too time-consuming, or required too much prep work, or was just plain scary?

A sweet friend of mine embarked on a very cool project that forced her to do something new that was scary for her, then she capped off the project by doing something else that was scary – she promoted herself in the local media. Her friends know she’s a talented, capable, amazing adult person, but we all have moments when we don’t believe that about ourselves, right? It’s a thing.

When she commented on a social media thread today that it was a scary thing to do – putting herself out there – I thought of all the things I’ve put off or ignored because they were scary or hard. (Well, not all of them… I have stuff to do today.) How many times do we look at two perfectly acceptable courses of action, one which will be “okay” and the other that would be “kick ass!” and decide that the “okay” thing is best?

Why move to New York to pursue acting when it would require selling the car and finding a job in a strange city and eating ramen and maybe being told you have some work to do to get as good as you thought you already were? Why do that when you can stay in Dallas where there are grocery stores and a mom who feeds you and a couple of local theatres you can perform in and be Just Fine.

Why, indeed.

Look, it’s fine to choose the thing that makes you happy, and it’s fine for that thing to be staying in Dallas. But it’s also fine to not stay. It’s even a great idea to not stay. Because Dallas will always be there. If you find out you’re not cut out for NYC, and miss your mom’s cooking, and would rather drive yourself around town… you can go home. But don’t miss out on learning how to try. Don’t make scrambled eggs, when you could have made a souffle.