Boards
So, I'm on a train
a few nights ago, making the rather depressing journey from Weston-Super-Mare back to Reading. As you can imagine, such a journey involves a fair amount of gloom, and I can do nothing besides stare out of the window into the darkness and wonder where my life went wrong. But then, at Bath, some drunks step onto the train. They seem an amiable bunch in their mid to late twenties and they begin talking to me. It turns out that they are headed to a pub in Chippenham, a pub that one of them owns no less, if you can believe drunk people in such a scenario (and I'm pretty sure you can) to carry on drinking. Now they invite me to go with them. To get off the train no less than 2 stops early, to a town I have never been to (and nor have I ever had much ambition to go to) and get drunk with perfect strangers. I should point out at this time that one of these drunks happened to be a rather fine looking female, and whilst she was undoubtedly uninterested in me (I mean, she was drunk and still not all that interested) that should have been enough of a reason in itself for someone as bitterly lonely as I have become recently.
Now some of you may recall that I recently posted a thread about how I have been in a rut; a funk in Reading and how I have desperately wanted something to do. Well, here was the chance - the oppurtunity to do something I have never done before, in a town that I have never been to. I considered the best and worst case scenarios in my head: worst case - im lost, and stranded, probably beaten up and I get all my things stolen; best case: I end the night in the fancy Chippenham loft of an attractive female 20something after a few too many pints of fine local ale (I'm just assuming that's what they drink there. I don't know) It sounds like a worthwhile risk, am I right? And I thought to myself here, what would Hemmingway do in this position? What would Danny Wallace do?
Well, I have to tell you guys, I didn't get off with them. I stayed on the train, got back to Reading, drank some whiskey alone and went to sleep, ruing a missed opportunity. The thing is, I had my laptop and a bag full of clothes and I thought that maybe it was too risky because I would really have been screwed if I had lost either of those things. I mean, that bag had most of my clothes in it, and as an unemployed student, I could not afford to replace those things. Moreover, obviously, laptops are expensive, that goes without saying. I suppose, the moral here is, don't let your personal baggage get in the way of you having a good time. But that's a bit tenuous. The real point here is I always thought of myself as the kind of guy who, if an adventure offered itself up to me, I'd take it. But it turns out I'm not that kind of guy. Not even a little bit.
So really in terms of why I've made this into a thread is uhm, who else has missed out on the chance to take risks? Who else among us has recently lost self respect for not just doing something a little out of the ordinary?