Everyone is scared of the unknown. Whether you’re a child afraid of monsters in the dark, or an old man pondering the afterlife, the uncharted is a recipe for disaster. But that doesn’t mean you can stick in a hovel for the entirety of your life. Everyone needs to step into the unknown and uncomfortable to overcome their fears. For me, this unknown was my cousins.

Łukacz and Mateusz stood in the doorframe. Łukacz was basically squished in between the hinges and Mateusz's side. Still, both of them were ecstatic to see me and my brother, Frank, at their house. In case you hadn't noticed, they don't live just around the block. They live all the way over in Poland. We had gone before, but I was too young to remember. This felt like the first time I had seen them. The brothers were polar opposites. Mateusz was big, tall, and all be it, fat. Łukacz, however, was short, scrawny, and pretty skinny. While they looked inviting, that little voice in my head said, Don’t trust them. Whether it was from how they looked, walked, or smiled, they seemed a little off-putting. But the most likely reason I thought that was because Łukacz and Mateusz had no idea how to speak English.

The language gap between us was, easily put, harsh. I did really want to enjoy my time with my cousins, yet I thought they were monsters in a way. I even jumped when they spoke with how loud and fast they boomed. Frank got along much better with them than me.

“Just go along with them,” Frank advised. “They’re perfectly fine if you just let them take the lead.” But I didn’t want to be a caboose; I wanted to be a conductor. I was as stubborn as a mule, and I wasn’t budging just because of two cousins. So, while Frank, Łukasz, and Mateusz played soccer, I lay flat in my bed, steamrolled by the weight of my doubts. Going outside was a shot in the dark for me, not a target in sight. It wasn’t until my mom stopped her endless chatter with her sisters that I finally took some advice.

“Go out with your cousins and play soccer,” she demanded after finding me lying as flat as a sat-on sandwich.

“But I don’t know what they’re saying,” I countered.

She sighed. “You have to learn to say ‘yes’ sometimes. Not everything is going to be perfect, and you have to accept that. ‘Yes’ is ‘Tac’. Now go outside.”

With that scolding, I guessed I had to eventually confront my cousins. And so, with a deep breath, I opened the old, battered screen door and tried to start my vacation.

I started playing soccer; even though I wasn’t good, I still loved the feeling of the wind flowing through my hair, making it dance through the air. Mateusz’s smile was as lighthearted as could be, along with everyone else’s. After soccer, Mateusz asked us a question; I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. But after hearing my mom’s advice and seeing my brother’s ear to ear grin, I decided to just say ‘yes.’ After Łukasz set a few things up, we played a capture the flag-esque game with airsoft guns. Even though Frank and I didn’t know half the rules, I had infinitely more amusement than if I were to sulk in the guest room, a coward of my former self.

The thing I concluded from the trip, though I didn't remark at the time, is that good fortune can come from unexpected places. No one is going to have the exact same experience as me, but you’re always going to be face to face with the unknown, whether that be a person, a place, or a thing. So when you come face to face with an untold monster, try to take that leap of faith, and you might end up with a new friend or two.

 

 

 

 

-Tim K.