Scenes From a Square

Date: March 2, 2002
Time: Around 11:30am, Roman Standard Time
Location: St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City, Italy

(Suzie is about to pull open a large, red door. Her traveling buddies behind her are hungry and tired after making their way through the crowded Vatican Museum. Suzie is without her trusted Rick Steve’s Italy Through the Backdoor guidebook.)

Suzie: “Hey guys, this looks like something important.”

Group of friends, together:
“It’s just a door, probably to a storage closet or something.”
“Look! A pizza vendor!”
“If we go anyplace else, we won’t have time for the Colosseum”
“My feet hurt. No more tourist attractions.”

(Suzie reluctantly releases the doorknob. She glances back at the door one last time. She walks off with her friends to get some cheap, Italian pizza.)

If I listed out the five biggest regrets of my life so far, March 2, 2002 would be near the top of the list. This was the day that I had my hand on the door to the most spectacular cathedral in the world, St. Peter’s, and I didn’t go in. Call it ignorance, stupidity, bad luck, it doesn’t matter. Why didn’t I open that door?

Date: October 19, 2004
Time: 8:30pm
Location: Parking lot by Suzie’s apartment

(Suzie is about to get out of a crowded car.)

Driver: “Are you sure you can’t go to the movie with us?”
Suzie: “Yeah, my test is tomorrow. I really have to study.”
(Suzie pulls up on the door handle to the car. The door opens a crack.)

Group of friends in back seat, together:
“No! Don’t open the door!”
“Yeah, come with us.”
“You don’t really need to study for the test.”
“The movie should be good.”

Suzie: “Sorry guys.”
(Suzie reluctantly pushes open the car door. She glances back at her friends one last time.)

Person #1 in backseat (joking): “You’re such a nerd, Suzie!”
Person #2 in backseat (laughing): “Yeah, L7 looooser.”
(Person #2 holds up fingers to forehead in the shape of a square.)

Suzie: “Whatever!”
(Suzie walks to her apartment and wishes she said something better than “whatever”.)

I guess it doesn’t really matter which doors I've opened and which I've chosen to leave shut. There are so many opportunities placed in front of me each day that the good and bad decisions cancel each other out. If I lived my life regretting the doors I didn’t open, I would never give myself credit for the ones I left shut. Yeah, I made a huge mistake by not going into St. Peter’s Cathedral. But I’ve made a lot of good decisions in my life too. And I did well on my test.