Pourquoi Pas?

So there I was in Budapest. Exhausted, exhilarated and say it with me now: downright happy. Close to the end of a two week whirlwind eastern European group tour I couldn't have been more relaxed and as you may have guessed, more tired. So it's no surprise at dinner when my new friends were chatting about going out later on I simply said I probably wouldn't go. After all, Vic was wiped out! Or so I thought.

To which my friend from Ontario responded with two little powerful words, "Why not?"

And you know what? I simply didn't have a good reason. Snapping out of a lame moment as in what was I thinking, I'll just sit in my hotel room? I can chill on the airplane for goodness sake. Of course I went out! We ended up relaxing at an outdoor cafe.

This got me thinking. A few days prior to that my friend from Calgary was saying how she's always wanted to work in Ireland and started researching visa issues and then just stopped for no apparent reason. All of the sudden, invigorated by our trip (it's amazing how being overseas completely removed from normal routines can bring incredible clarity), she said, "I'm going to do it. Why not?" She continued, "What do I have to lose? I basically work to live so why not do it in Ireland instead?"

The very same friend who called me on my moment of lameness mentioned in another conversation that she met a woman on the airplane who is a nurse and invited her to check out her hospital one day and that she's always been interested in nursing but didn't pursue it. Instantly she decided she owed it to herself to take the woman up on her offer to see if there's a spark, to see what may or may not develop. "Why not?" she asked.

A few days later I was in Paris eavesdropping on a conversation in yet another outdoor cafe. The chi chi Parisian kind where you eat bread that's so crispy and delicious it truly doesn't even taste like carbs as we know it. "Pourquoi pas?" inquired one woman to another as you knew they were certainly dishing about something magnificent in life, asking one another the buzzwords WHY NOT. I didn't catch the rest of the conversation since I speak francais un peu (a little) but you know what? It mattered not. The theme was resonating loud and clear.

So, my friends, that's my new mantra. If it's not an issue of lack of time or money, seriously, what is stopping us? Not to say we'll drop everything and decide to do something drastic like be an entertainer on a cruise ship for six months or go backpacking in Thailand (but hmmmm, that does sound like a neat experience, no?) we at least owe it to ourselves to explore our options like a new career path, exciting new city, fun hobby or interactive sport.