Jason Robie: Being brave

I recognize that we, as humans, are innately social beings and tend to lean towards the pack mentality. I mean, why else would any sane, logical, thinking person venture within 100 miles of a shopping mall on Black Friday? But why do we do so, blindly? Is it a lack of confidence? Is it a lack of our own good judgment? Are we really afraid of "Daring Greatly"? Perhaps we just assume that the people up front, simply by the nature of their presence at the front of the line, know better than we do. The goal for today is to release some of that insanity.

I have taken a few, some might say fool-hearty, leaps in my life. I went to college in Minneapolis based on a conversation with one professor and arrived sight-unseen for my first semester. I skipped my second semester and changed my return flight from Christmas break to Jackson Hole, Wyo., instead of Minnesota. (I mean, we all need to be a ski bum at some point in our lives, right?) I then finished up college in West Virginia (again, sight unseen). I was laid off from a job in Portsmouth and moved to the Lincoln to join the Loon Mountain ski patrol when most of my friends were working on their "real" careers. (OK, sometimes you need to be a ski bum more than once!) And even uprooted my entire life, Remy and all, and moved most of the way across the country just to satisfy a life-long yearning.