Opportunites, Missed and Taken

This afternoon, as my plane made preparations to carry me on the first leg of my 3-flight trip home, an announcement was made that perked up my ears. Springfield, MO was experiencing thunderstorms and in order to prepare for a potential trip to Arkansas instead, my plane would have to extend its time in O'Hare long enough to take on more fuel. So much for having a comfortable buffer of time between flights. Several minutes later the announcement was made that with the addition of the extra fuel our plane was now officially "too heavy," and volunteers were asked for to exit the plane, fortunately still on the ground at this point. These volunteers would of course be recompensed with a seat on the next available flight as well as a voucher for a round-trip ticket to anywhere in the contiguous United States. My heart jumped up into my throat and started pounding abnormally. Here was my chance - a free ticket home for Christmas! And at this juncture, the genes I received from my mother hijacked my go-with-the-flow brain and started thinking of everything that could possibly go wrong with this plan: I could miss a whole slew of connecting flights and be stranded in Missouri long enough for the bump to lose its worth, my employers could be expecting me back today and have me slated for something extremely important the following day... and before I could conjure up images of tyrannosaurs in F-16s blowing up the airport minutes after seeing my once plane take off, two other people volunteered. Poop.

I hate it when I don't act on opportunities. Sometimes, like in this instance, I just don't act quickly enough - my mental every-possible-scenario-figurer-outer simply can't process with the speed necessary to decide something is in fact a good option before it ceases to be an option. (This frequently gets me when it comes to spontaneous acts of altruism - Do I pick up the hitch-hiker? Do I tip the street musician? Do I help the lady with the papers flying everywhere? ... Too often the answer is, "Well, too late for that one, I guess.") Other times, I chicken out entirely - working up the nerve to ask for a date, taking a ridiculously cool job (yet one that would require a longer commitment) and so forth. I'm getting better about making the most of my opportunities, but I still pass up enough that I routinely kick myself in the butt and resolve to take the next opportunity I get.

One particularly memorable missed opportunity occured within the last year. I had given myself a late Christmas present and splurged on a good seat to the concert Bobby McFerrin gave when he came to Sauder Hall at Goshen College. During the entire performance I sat enraptured by the sounds coming from this man's voice (and body!). Bobby has a vocal range of many octaves and has the ability to sing the melody of a song while simultaneously humming out a bassline and singing various harmonies. And the whole time I was sitting there thinking, man, I would love to be him and do this stuff for a living. And during the songs in which he called for audience participation, I remember thinking how fun it would be to just sit around and sing with this phenomenal musician. And then, as if God was speaking from the heavens (Bobby's talking voice is low), he invited someone down to stage to sing something - anything - with him (he is also an extremely skilled improviser). And instantaneously my soul was sprinting up to the stage. But my [bleepity-bleepin'] mind didn't let me. What if I couldn't think of anything to sing? What if I messed up a song if I did think of one. What if I myself tried to improvise but then utterly failed? And so I didn't go up. Three times (he extended the offer twice more). And though I did end up going when he invited a large group (to make up a choir), that day I was the maddest I have been at myself in a while. Screw inhibitions! I thought later. They only lead to sitting down and watching others have all the fun in life (and occasionally keep you from foolishly killing yourself)! And I resolved - as I always do - to not let another such opportunity pass itself up.


Really, though... I think life is much more rewarding when you don't let little nagging doubts prevent you from taking amazing opportunities. After watching the movie Yes Man I was struck by the message it seemed to be sending (though I didn't really care for the film itself). In it, Jim Carrey played a very boring man, challenged by a friend to literally say "yes" to everything, and his life was completely opened up to a world of possiblities because of his actions. There are always exceptions where it is still wise to exercise caution - as the movie pointed out in the end - but as a general policy it's good and life giving, seized opportunities begetting more opportunities and so on.

On these thoughts and more I reflected on my way to Springfield, then Denver... and it was while waiting to board my flight to Grand Junction that I heard those magical words, "Passengers on flight [number], we're sorry to announce that we've overbooked this flight..." If I didn't act this time then I might as well give up on myself now and save myself the trouble. My phone was already in my hand calling Lance as I popped up and headed for the counter. "Yes, I'm willing to take the bump. Let me just quick make this call." Lance only encouraged me and gave me his blessing. All right. No qualms about taking yet another vacation day. I surrendered my boarding pass right then and there. And now I'm sitting on my nice double bed ("I'm sorry sir, but I'm giving you a double. All the kings are booked."), looking over at my other nice double bed, digesting my free supper, and preparing to get my beauty sleep before my flight out tomorrow. And I have in my pocket a voucher that will fly me home (or, to one of them, at least) for Christmas. Cha-ching!