Taking Action (This I Believe 2018)

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There’s a time-old saying that you need to keep an ear out for when Opportunity comes knocking on your door. You need to be ready to open said door and welcome Opportunity instead of keeping it waiting out on the porch, considering to try your neighbor’s house instead. Don’t let Opportunity pass you by – that’s the lesson. Now, I’ve seen chatty Jehovah’s Witness, can-collecting boy scouts, cookie-selling football players, and a pesky vacuum salesman at my home in Clawson, yet not Opportunity. That’s because Opportunity doesn’t knock. You need to chase him down.

The summer of 2018 was only okay. While the general takeaway was positive, there were three lonely weeks in July that tainted the overall experience. During this time, the grad party social circuit slowed down, and my summer school duties picked up. Teaching summer school is a pretty sweet gig. Monday through Thursday, I taught two sections of incoming freshman students for two hours, from 8:00 – 10:00 AM. After that, my days were wide open. It was awesome! I read books and streamed television shows like you couldn’t believe. New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Younger, Succession – I watched entire seasons and series off of family members’ passwords and accounts for Hulu and the like. However, it gets old.

Sitting back in the Alex-shaped hole in the couch, I started to ponder my summer activities in between loading episodes to screencast from my phone onto the TV. Had I left my house this weekend? When was the last time I saw my friends? Have I even talked to anyone besides students and my mom this week? I began to get depressed. What the heck? Why weren’t people calling me? Where were all the friendly texts? Sure, all my other friends don’t get summer vacation like I do, but surely, they could be inviting me to something! Where were my crazy summer nights that John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John sang about? After three weeks, things were getting dire.

Scrolling through my inbox of old text messages, it finally hit me. Yes, there were no new incoming texts, but guess what – there were also no outgoing ones either. That’s when I realized the error of my ways. I had been waiting around on my butt for Opportunity to come knocking, and it got me nowhere. I was done waiting.

I decided to conquer Butler County’s Donut Trail in Ohio, crossing off an epic item from my bucket list and reuniting with a college roommate and his wife as a stop on my road trip. In just a few more texts, I had plans to go to the movies, I was buying tickets for Broadway musicals in Detroit, I was grabbing ice cream with a former classmate in Ann Arbor and reconnecting with a childhood friend at a piano bar in Royal Oak. The opportunities were endless, but I had to take action rather than wait for them to come find me.

After coming to this realization, I haven’t stopped kicking myself for those wasted three weeks in July. Instead of wallowing in negativity, there was so much time I could have been filling if I chose to. I will make sure I don’t make the same mistake again. I won’t be waiting around for Opportunity to come knocking on my door. I believe in taking action.

  

After visiting 12 local donut shops in Ohio, I was able to turn in my completed "passport" for a t-shirt from the Butler County Visitors' Bureau.

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For other examples of "This I Believe" blog posts, check out these links to some past favorites:

1. Unmade Beds (Mr. Davidson, 2017)

2. Millennials (Mr. Davidson, 2016)
3. Rock and Roll (Evan, 2015)
4. Filling Water Bottles (Peter, 2017)
5. Detroit (Ryan, 2015)
6. Naps (John, 2017)
You can also check out even more examples at the official website for the program: thisibelieve.org