This past weekend, two friends and I went to a Blink 182 concert in Pittsburgh. We spent good money on some really good seats, about seven rows back from the stage. The show was amazing, but that's not what I'm writing to tell you about.
Three rows in front of us sat the most gorgeous girl I'd seen all night. With about 30,000 in attendance and almost all of which in their early 20s, that's saying a lot! To top it off, she didn't seem to be with anyone. I couldn't take my eyes off her. None of us could. One of my friends was clearly having some of the same thoughts. He leaned over and said, "She must be with one of the band members or something..." I didn't buy it, though she had the looks, but what douche would put their girl in the fourth row with the other common folk like us. I made up my mind. I needed to talk to her.
This is a big deal to me, I've approached women before, had pretty steady love interests, but never batted in this league. And certainly never with the outright intention to as quickly as possible getting her number. Just as I was working up the nerve, one of my friends, actually old enough to legally drink, decided he needed a beer. 'This is good' I thought, 'I need to figure out what I'm gonna say and could use a walk to straighten out my thoughts. So, we went with, just to tag along. A few minutes later, we came back to find that our fine friend had vanished into thin air, but worse, into the mass of drunken Blinkers.
"That's fine," I said to myself as my mind flipped through a Rolodex of at least 100 valid reasons why it was a bad idea anyway. "But what if I could have?" the Rolodex came to a sudden stop. "This would have been the first time I really stepped out of my comfort zone to go after something above what I have ever gone for before... Meh, no matter now, tomorrow's another day."
Blink came on and rocked our faces off, then like cattle, we filed out and toward the gate. Blink put on an awesome show for us, and I was satisfied knowing that if the girl in the fourth row had stuck around for the main event that I would have... "Hey, look!" one of my friends said, "It's that hottie in the pink shirt!" By the way, the girl in the fourth row was wearing this fantastic pink shirt with multi-color cassette tape Andy Warhol style print on the side. She was still alone and texting under a lamp pole, like something out of a cheesy movie—her blond curls glowing warmly by the soft yellow light.
We walked past her a little ways and just like a cheesy scene from the second or third sence of any chick flick ever made, I stopped and said, "guys wait up, I'm gonna do this." I quickly turned and began to walk back to her. The next 20 steps or so went painfully slow. I was shocked I was doing this. Then, I finally reached her and quickly realized I had never really decided on what I was going to say.
She was even more gorgeous up close. "Hi, I wanted to let you know I think your gorgeous..." ok, lame, but honest. "I have to know... are you dating anyone?" I said in a very nerdy, awkward way, I'm sure. The response was, "Yes, I am, sorry... and thank you, you're sweet" She seemed genuinely flattered that I stepped out and complimented her like that, I can hope anyway... And she said I was sweet, that's a win, right?
My friends were trying to look cool when I met back up with them. They commended me for the attempt, and we set off for home.
The whole reason I write all of this is to say that sometimes you need to step out if you want to have what you want. I didn't get the girl. However, I know that I can, and I will, and that rejection will not kill me. No more excuses!! There are 1,000,002 excuses for everything, and more reasons than that not to. Easy outs are everywhere. Everyone takes them. So, be different, step out, get rejected once or 100 times, as I will, I have no doubt. But every time that I step out, I will get a little better at it. So, go out there, find your girl at the rock show.
