What The Choker Taught Me

Life, it appears to me, has incredible, sometimes strange, ways of reminding us of the lessons hidden deep within our hearts and minds.
Years ago, a bosom school friend demonstrated the classic signs of a choker! The type who will brag exceedingly and talk about his incredible bravado in the presence of his mates but run for cover at the very first sign of a challenge.
The challenge in his case was the love of a girl: telling a girl that he really liked her. Lol.
The most popular girl in the neighbourhood had manifested an interest in him.
Obviously blown away by the charming beauty of the girl, the otherwise brilliant chap begun to act like a wimp. He was the classic case of an emotional retard in the company of girls.
Whenever we were in the company of this particular girl, he would chicken out and become helplessly dumbfounded not uttering a single word until the girl was gone.
The poor guy's behaviour was completely unexpected, unreasonable and perplexing in the utmost. We, his friends, were baffled by his strange fear.
As much as we tried to coach him to go for the kill, the poor chap could never bring himself to say anything meaningful to the girl.
Instead, he would brag about the blooming love between himself and the maiden to every one of us, his buddies, who cared to listen.
Even though the girl did everything possible to encourage him to step forth, he could simply not overcome his fears.
As is always the case, before he could muster the courage to open his mouth, another neighbourhood dude had stolen his thunder and his prey.

Last night, life brought me a 'sankofa' moment.
I was talking to another friend on the phone and he talked about this friend. And all of a sudden the events I have narrated above begun to flood my mind. Then I remembered something. The behaviour of this friend taught me a great lesson in life about the importance of taking risk.

Fear is the undoing of many people.
The fear of rejection, of ridicule, of failure, of the unfamiliar ... continue to keep many good souls by the way side far from the very best.
As much as is possible I will continue to live my life in such a way that I will be able to grab every opportunity and chance, that come my way, with both hands.

A belly full of regrets is not something I wish to entertain at any point in life.
So I am reminding myself again today to strike while the iron is hot.
And Whilst at it to do so with a good measure of a killer instinct .
That, I believe, is a promise worth keeping to oneself!