I’m a story teller. Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you that I have a story about everything and that when I tell it, I include the great details…complete with all the hilarious hand motions. I live for the moments when the story ends and either everyone erupts in laughter, or everyone reaches for more tissues. To mirror that, I love the moment when I’m in the cinema and the movie ends. Better than that, I love when something phenomenal happens in a movie, the perfect song comes on and your heart catches in your throat. It’s true, I’m a sucker for a good story….
One night in Jerusalem, Melissa and I were talking about how awesome it would be to have music play throughout your life, your own personal soundtrack, I suppose. I laughed because so many times I will put my Ipod in and find the perfect song that fits the moment I am presently living. If I can’t do that at the time, I’ll grab my camera and make sure I can somehow create a video or something later to remind me of that awesome time.
It’s funny because half of my memories are probably a lot more unbelievably amazing in my mind than they actually were in real life. Not only that, I find myself making decisions based off of whether or not it’s going to be an awesome story to tell. I make these crazy decisions and decide that I am doing it because it’s going to make it so much more heart-stopping and exciting when I tell someone else about it. I am a dramatic, what can I say?
There were several times in Israel that I made these random and somewhat crazy decisions just so that when I came home I could tell everyone “and then this happened…” and just as I predicted, everyone gasps, shakes their head or laughs at my ridiculous choices.
I used to see this as a flaw. I used to think that I was going to epically ruin my life by playing out these cinematic scenarios, now I realize, maybe it’s just who I am. I think I need the stories and what’s so wrong with that? What’s wrong with looking back on your life and having these incredible stories to tell people? I can say one thing, a lot of times I don’t look back with regret, because the truth is…I did something worthwhile and I did something most people wouldn’t dare.
I think the reason why the movie industry makes billions upon billions of dollars every year is because we love to watch what we believe will never happen in our own lives. How many people go on some crazy adventure; find true love, lose true love, nearly die, survive and live to write a best-selling novel about it? Not many. That’s why when they do, we flock to buy the book or to watch the movie. We dream of the unlived life. We dream of a legendary tale and we dream that we are the hero. So what if they’re just stories? What if I make seemingly ridiculous decisions based off of not wanting to live a small and meaningless story? Maybe one day I’ll stumble into a destiny far greater than my writer/story-teller brain could have imagined. One thing is for sure, I won’t look back and say that I didn’t do all the crazy things I wanted to, or that I didn’t say what I meant to or that I “played it safe”. And for today, I’m more than okay with that.
ASHLIN BOYLES 