Mission Impossible: No looking back

It really kind of interesting, the coincidences I run into. Just yesterday I wrote a bit about the nature of competition and its relation to life. On the same day, I heard the following story on an audio tape:

Ten young men stood at the edge of a pool. Out of 500, they were the brave, the strong, the fast, and they survived all of the trials that weeded the others out–this was their last test. The king was on the other side of the pool, and so was the covetous princess whom they fought tooth and claw to impress. They were a pool away from victory: the first to cross shall win her hand in marriage. Yet none dared to cross. In the pool before them swam ten hungry alligators, each eight foot long–one for each foolhardy contestant. The men looked across at the beautiful princess, then down at the gators; princess, gators; princess, gators. The risk factor and pressure was too great, and the men stood motionlessly in sync.

Fifteen minutes passed, and the king was getting worried. “Was this too tough a challenge”, he thought, “will my daughter be without a husband?” Just as the king was deep in thought, he heard a splash and quickly looked towards the pool: there, a lone man, fully immersed in the water, was splashing wildly forward while 10 ominous S-shapes closed in on him. As the remaining 9 men watched nervously, the desperate man fight his way to the other side, touched shore, and fell over onto dry land–safe. The king approached the slopping fellow, raised his hand, and with the princess beaming, declared the man the next Prince of his kingdom. It was then the breathless man spoke, “Before anything…I want to know, WHO WAS THE BASTARD WHO PUSHED ME INTO THE POOL?!”

End of Story

Surprisingly, there was actually a moral to the story: never look back. When a person is in a pool with alligators ( I admit, surviving in such a pool is a stretch) one must keep swimming ahead, full on with every ounce of energy. To look back is to be distracted; to be distracted is to ask to be consumed.

I guess what I got out of the story is that, rather than ponder self-servingly about the nature of competition, I should accept it as a fact of life and continue onward. I was in a similar predicament before: for my first semester in college, I dedicated more time to learning how to study rather than actually studying, trying to be efficient rather than just being efficient. I believe the key was the “being” part, living the moment, having the confidence to accept my skills and who I am as an individual. After establishing this mentality, I felt infinitely lighter in my second semester and began to truly live my skin.

Ultimately, my conclusion is this: if I live every moment attentive to every detail and sensitive to all that I can learn, I won’t need to go on internships or work in Washington DC to become ‘more competitive’. Sure, I could learn much from such opportunities and fill a lot of resume space as well, but since I am here, in my house back in SoCal, I am going to make the best of it and let God take care of the rest.