If it Hurts, It’s Probably Worth it.

“…So never refuse an invitation, never resist the unfamiliar, never fail to be polite and never outstay your welcome. Just keep your mind open and suck in the experience. And if it hurts, you know what? It’s probably worth it.”

My mantra- or so to speak.

The first time I heard this quote I was in the passenger seat of my best friend’s 1999 Jeep Cherokee Sport – the old boxy kind they don’t even make anymore- my seat tilted back, one foot on the dash, the other resting on the neck of the side view mirror, the almost-summer wind tickling my toes and blowing my hair back.

We were rounding the corner to the beach near my parent’s house and the music was blasting. I was seventeen.

The fact that this quote has stayed with me for so long probably has a lot to do with the fact that I was seventeen. Seventeen is the kind of age where simple things can sort of change our lives forever. We are old enough to be independent in a lot of ways yet still malleable enough for one person, one song or one car ride to rock our world. It’s the one time in our lives where no one can take the feeling of being infinite away from you – because, at seventeen, it’s kind of the one time no one can really argue that we are as close to being infinite as we’re ever going to get.

“Listen to this song; you’re going to be obsessed!” My friend yelled over the deafening music, turning it up a few more notches. We exchanged the kind of smiles shared between best friends that are so deliciously sweet you wish you could freeze the moment forever.

And just like that… the wind, the water, the air, the company, the freedom of wheels, my head rocking to the beat…it all made sense. No matter that I didn’t know what “it” was yet (and to be honest, I probably still don’t). Suddenly, I knew who I wanted to be, who I had to be.

In that moment, with the hypothetical world at my feet, I knew that I never wanted to be guilty of refusing an invitation, I never wanted to resist the unfamiliar, never wanted to fail to be polite, and although I was kind of unsure about what the whole “never outstay your welcome” part meant- I sure as hell was going to make sure to suck in the experience.