I love Pepe’s pizza. 

The problem isn’t that I love Pepe’s pizza. It’s that I know Pepe’s pizza is possible.

There are two kinds of possibilities: one we can imagine, and one we know is real. The former is something we’ve seen or heard about. The latter is something we’ve had firsthand experience with. I’ll admit, deciphering between the two is more and more difficult with social media, streaming, and the introduction of more imagined possibilities.

We can go down the overly romanticized route that “anything is possible.” Many do. It is an easy idea to grab onto and keep us hopeful. We do need to be hopeful, but it’s worth considering that a view of anything being possible might have the opposite effect. In a sense, the possibilities we imagine taint the possibilities we know are real. As a result, we go from anything being possible to nothing being possible. (That sucks. I’ve been there.)

Maybe you think, I know it’s possible because if they can do it, I can, too.

You’re right. And here’s the core point I’m trying to make: for possibilities to go from imagined to real, we have to experience them directly. Whatever it is, we have to do it. It’s the only way. Only action can evaporate imagined possibilities and leave you with real ones. And now we’re back to the problem of possibility.

Once it goes from imagined to real, it stains our mind forever. It haunts us daily. It leaves fingerprints on our heart that last a lifetime. It doesn’t matter if we like what we experience or don’t. We must live with what we now know. We have to eat pizza the rest of our life knowing that Pepe’s pizza exists. 

All the while knowing we only get so many pizzas in one life.

*This article is part of the ongoing Morning After series: short, reflective pieces on thoughts, feelings, and ideas about life. They’re kind of like well-manicured journal entries, written the morning after a night out.