Brave

Will my unusually long fingernails survive three days of tax software training?

My head says no.

But my heart...

Says no.

People at work were super slightly freaking out about me riding my bike home in the dark. 

I don't know why, though. If anything, the night makes my bike lights even more visible to passers-by. 

Passer-bys.

By-passers. 

I mean, yeah, it's a little unnerving when you've just watched the Walking Dead the night before and there are some things you can't see rustling around in the woods, but then you just think about Jesus and hymns and everything's okay again. 

In fact, most everyone I talk to is "afraid" to bike because they're certain they'll get killed.

As if being in a car is any safer. To quote one of my favorite bloggers of all time, safety is an expensive illusion. 

You should read that article if you disagree with me at all. 

Like even a little bit.

Do it.

I've actually found that I enjoy riding at night. There's less traffic, so you get to hear things that you would never hear in a car- like crazy frog and katydid sounds. It's so peaceful. 

I also found that I like riding next to 18-wheelers. I know, it's weird to like an enormous, loud, scary vehicle 6 inches from you, but I feel like truck drivers know what they're doing (as opposed to bus drivers). Occasionally, they'll do a friendly honk as if to say, "Keep on saving the world, girl." 

I also love to be behind them at stop lights because they take a longer time to accelerate than a normal car, which gives me enough time to pedal and keep up with traffic for a bit. 

In addition, especially in my town, they're carrying logs or sawed lumber which smells like a pine forest or Lowe's and it's just so delightful. 

The next sentence is either going to make you like me a little more or hate me much more, so here we go:

Life can be comparable to a video game.

Ok. Everyone still there? Or did everyone close this browser window to read more link bait and ogle more sonograms on Facebook?

In any case, whoever is still reading this, congratulations. Just stick with me. I promise we'll get through this.

So in the majority of video games, you progress through the game via stages and levels and boss fights and gain "experience" while doing all these things. Experience makes you awesome. More experience means you level up quicker, get more abilities, better gear and weapons which helps you have more fun in the game later on, and I'm totally nerding out right now.

To bring it back to life in general:

Experience makes life fun.  Some might even say that you are who you become because of your experiences. Having experience is how you find out what you like (surfing), what you hate (going to Wal-Mart), what you never want to do again (skiing), what you're passionate about (playing guitar). Experiences give you certain abilities, and experience in the right activity can even provide career opportunities. They help you develop skills and ideas, and, at the very least, give you something interesting to talk or write about. 

So if you want to cower in your car, all afraid that some outside force might come careening into you if you happen to travel outside of a metal box, hey- that's totally your call.

But don't encourage me to do the same.
I will be outside, day or night, getting experience.

And also collecting coins and/or prize bubbles, if available,

TWS