Brida

"She was on the beach with her father, and he asked her to go and see what the temperature of the water was like. She was five years old and glad to be able to help. She we the to water's edge and dipped in a toe. 'I put my feet in and it's cold,' she told him. Her father picked her up and carried her down to the water again, and, without any warning, threw her in. She was shocked at first, but then laughed out loud at the trick he'd played. 'How's the water?' asked her father. 'It's lovely,' she replied. 'Right, from now on, whenever you want to find out about something, plunge straight in.' She had quickly forgotten this lesson. She may only have been twenty-one, but she had already nurtured many enthusiasms, which she had abandoned as quickly as she had taken them up. She wasn't afraid of difficulties; what frightened her was being forced to choose one particular path. Choosing a path meant having to miss out on others. She had a whole life to live and she was always thinking that, in the future, she might regret the choices she made now. 'I'm afraid of committing myself,' she thought to herself. She wanted to follow all possible paths and so ended up following none." -Paulo Coelho, Brida