Risk Taking Chapter 3—Life is What You Make of It

Risk Taking Chapter 3—Life is What You Make of It.
By Brandt Danals.. You know the drill.. Call me B

“Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.” –John Lennon

For a while now I’ve recognized this as my favorite quote, but I’m not really sure that until recently did I fully understand its meaning. It’s easy to pick out a quote and say, “That’s how I’m going to live my life.” It is shockingly hard to put it into practice. So the past few weekends in my life, I’ve gone from making plans, admittedly having a blast carrying them out, to not making any plans and seeing what type of roller coaster ride life has in store for me and my spontaneity. So far... no complaints.

So this weekend was a huge weekend at my school. For those of you who don’t know, my school just invested 25 million dollars into building a state of the art football stadium for our up and coming ultra talented football team, and trust me when I tell you, they were not afraid to spend money on it. So the excitement leading to the weekend, at least in regards to full extent of the word “excitement”, in Ashland, Ohio was off the chart. People were making plans like crazy to go to parties, what to wear to the game, and who they were going with, and so forth. However, my friend Tyler and I, who some of you may recall from my recent adventure to Philadelphia did nothing of the sort.

Friday Night, don’t ask me why, but I ventured to one of my high school’s old rivals to watch them in a Friday Night football game versus my alma mater. Actually, contrary to the recent past, my high school is surprisingly decent at football this year, thanks in part to the new coaches, as well as the current kid’s in the programs dedication, but the trend of games that I attend, and my high school loses continued. Normally when I go back to my home town, I talk to the normal people, friends of family, some old friends that are in attendance, and the one or two random people that might come up and say “hi”. Unlucky for me, this was not one of those nights. It seemed that just about every person I ran into wanted to come up and talk to me about:

a. The new football stadium at Ashland, and the game that was to be played the next day.

b. My new basketball coach at Ashland.

c. What the hell I was doing back at Loudonville.

d. What I was doing after the game.

Normally, I would be apt to field all questions, especially ones concerning my life, but for some reason, after about the 30th question I fielded regarding my new coach I got irritated. I can’t even really explain why, I love the coach, I didn’t really dislike any of the people, just caught me on an off night I suppose. So I left the game hell bent on going back to Ashland, meeting up with Tyler and drinking more beer than any two college kids should.

Mission Accomplished.

8:41am (Why I remember this time I’m not sure.. but nonetheless I do.)

Tyler.. “Brandt.. Wake up.. Its game day.

Me.. “Fuck.. I slept in.” I scurry to the bathroom, shower in world record pace, brush my teeth, literally run down the hallway back to my room, throw on some clothes and settle down.

8:52am.. First beer of the day is cracked. (As are number 2, 3, and 4)

9:58am.. Walk into BW3’s. Now, I honestly can’t say I’ve ever been into a bar before 10am before, but now that item is scratched from my future to do list. Tyler and I were the first ones at the bar and proceeded to drink six 23oz. drafts (one of which was purchased for us by the manager, because he found it hilarious that we were shit faced prior to 11am.

11:30.. Rooks finally shows up and Tyler and I stumble into the parking lot to tailgate for the game. The three of us finish a case of beer.

12:45.. Admittedly hammered I make my way to the game, where I would run into my parents.

Dad.. “How fucking drunk are you?!”

Me.. “ Not too bad.. I didn’t start til like 9”

Dad.. “Well Jesus Christ.. have another”

Me.. (Not realizing his sarcasm) “We already drank them all”

So the game goes on an AU wins in dramatic fashion at the end of the game. I’d tell you a little more play by play, but to be honest all I remember about the game is yelling loud enough to win my section free pizza.

5pm.. Pack my shit up and head to Cleveland for a “Bottle Party” (Liquor only) at my former roommates multi-million dollar house.

6pm.. Arrival

7pm.. Too drunk to stand.. Have to sit down and wait for 8 o’clock to roll around so I actually make it to kick off of the Ohio State Game..

11pm.. Ohio State loses, once again.. Fuck it.. No need to stay coherent now.

11:01pm.. Three Shots of Grey Goose, clothes on the deck.. Me in the pool. Swimming.. Alone..

Well I suppose that is enough of a recap of my weekend, I won’t bore you with my two hour rapping session, a common occurrence when SG, Holland and I get together, nor will I tell you about how my douche bag of a friend Tyler bailed on my and came back to Ashland, leaving me to scramble to find a ride home on Sunday morning. You’d think paying for an entire trip to Philadelphia, as well as beer for an entire weekend of tailgating would secure me a spot in his car on the way home, but I guess what they say is true.. Pussy will always prevail.

I guess the point to telling you a recap of my weekend was to prove to you, and myself, that an enormous amount of fun can be had without making plans. Not only do I look forward to what may come of this weekend, but I know you do as well.. I mean who wouldn’t enjoy reading about the adventures of a beautiful college kid who has more money in his pockets than a college kid should be allowed to carry, I know its only there to get me in trouble.. But you might as well spend it.

I’ll leave you with another quote I found while searching for something to include in this blog to give you the false appearance that I truly am intelligent, because it honest to god backs up what the entire theme of my blog is: Taking risks so that you can enjoy the life you are living to the fullest. You don’t want to wake up some day with regrets wondering what your life might have been like if you would have done all the things you wanted to do along the way.. so my advice before I hit you with this genius quote by a brilliant author is to do what you want to do, no matter the cost, no matter the distance, no matter the emotional joys or pains it may bring with it, because lets face it, you may never get the chance again.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. —Mark Twain

Until Next Time…

Much Love,

B