Six Flags

Today was a welcome change from the normal routine of sitting on my computer and refreshing my facebook. Today I went to Six Flags' Discovery Kingdom with my girlfriend, Katie, and my self proclaimed sister, Hilary. For those of you not in the know, Discovery Kingdom is a zoo/roller coaster theme park in northern California. It's always very busy during the summer, but we thought that since a lot of kids were going back to school about now, it wouldn't be too bad.

So we spent the morning scraping together all our loose change and 1/2 off admission coupons and then headed out at around 1 p.m. pacific time. I've been there dozens of times, but we managed to get lost on the way because we were following Hilary's voice navigation instead of my memory. In the end, we got there with what promised to be several hours of good fun.

Now Discovery Kingdom has a most peculiar mascot. It's an incredibly old, wrinkly, man named Mr. Six (Six for six flags)who can outdance anyone alive. When we walked through the gates, the first thing we saw was Mr. Six having a dance party with a bunch of Looney Tunes Characters. The ladies excused themselves to the bathroom, since our car ride was a little longer than we anticipated, and I took the occasion as an opportunity to join Mr. Six's dance party.

I knew I didn't have long to dance (the girls would be back soon and I wanted to keep my involvement in this jam a secret) so I busted out a few really sweet moves. I could tell that some of the Looney Tunes were impressed (Bugs definitely could have been more enthusiastic about the party), but I think Mr. Six thought I wanted to challenge him to a dance off. The toons started to form a circle around him and me, but I managed to escape before they closed it. It's really a shame. I would have loved to lose a dance off with the greatest dancing geezer I've ever seen, but I didn't want to embarrass my girlfriend. And if you've ever seen my personal brand of dance moves, you would know why she'd be embarrassed to see me dancing in public.

So I caught up with the girls just as they came out of the lavatory and we headed off in the direction of some roller coaster or other. We walked all round, rode some rides, saw some animals, ate some incredibly overpriced food, and generally just had a ball. We saw Mr. Six a couple more times, but I never went over to dance with him again.

This is kind of random, but I tend to listen way more than I like to talk. So when we were walking around the park, Katie and Hilary would walk next to each other and talk while I walked quietly behind them. Sometimes they would talk about things I didn't care to listen to, so instead I imagined that I was their hired body guard. I would glance around for any signs of danger and pretend that I was a master of every martial art. I imagined us being attacked by a group of thugs. The girls would stand back and watch me with awe and lust in their eyes as I beat our assailants to a pulp. Everytime I imagined something like this, I would laugh at myself and shake my head. Sometimes I like to share what goes on in my noggin, but I think it's best that I usually don't.

Anyhow, while we were on our way home, I was thinking about Mr. Six and was wondering if I regretted not dancing with him. After all, how often does that opportunity come up? And would Katie's embarrassment really be a very big deal? Of course not! She would get over it in a few minutes! Was I afraid of her or her reaction? Of course not! What would she do? Hit me? Break up with me? Over a really dorky looking dance? That's just silly. So why did I decide not to dance with him?

Honestly, because I didn't want to. I mean, I did want to. I really wanted to. But even more, I didn't want to embarrass Katie. This probably seems like a lame, cop-out reason to some people. After all, I just explained that her embarrassment was not a big deal. What's up with the contradiction?

I think it comes down to following your heart. To me, it was more important to keep my girlfriend temporarily happy, than it was to have a crazy-go-nuts dance off. Now some of you will probably say, "That's stupid. You'll regret not dancing if you wanted to do it so bad!". Well, I would have to disagree. Katie's happiness was my priority, not Mr. Six. The way I see it, I chose the greater of two great things. That's just the way I think. You might disagree with my decision. You probably do. Hell, even Katie may think I made the wrong choice if she ever reads this. But the decision was still mine to make. And I honestly feel that I made the right one.

Always follow your heart. And make sure you know what that means. It won't always be exciting or cool or glamorous or even very fun, but it will always be what you really want. Never settle for less than your heart's desire.