Paddleboarding alongside my teacher, I was learning a badass new stroke that would make me go faster. I nailed the first couple minutes. Then I got cocky, lost balance and went off the left side of my board straight. Into. The. Hudson.
“Yeah!” Allesandro cheered. “See? You start taking chances and sometimes you go swimming. Big risk, big reward, baby!” (OMG! The hot paddleboarding teacher called me “baby” while I was floating in the dirty river!)
“At least you went in gracefully, Candace!” called a classmate who paddled up.
Laughing, I pulled myself out of the river and sat on my board for a minute. I thought about how this was a good metaphor for life. If I’m going to be swimming with the fishes in the Hudson, I want it to be while doing something awesome. And if I can manage it with a little grace or while laughing, even better.
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