"Maybe"

This entry was inspired after reading a few blogs and thinking about past experiences.

If I could enumerate a list of words that have so much power to change the world, one of the highest on the list would have to be "maybe." For such a simple 5-letter word, it's very strong. By adding it to a thought, it could transform it into an idea as ambiguous as a cloud. Maybe brings about hesitation. Maybe brings about doubt. Maybe brings about inaction. Maybe can either destroy hopes, if one is pessimistic, or raise it up, if one is optimistic. Whole wars are won and lost on assumptions of "maybe." People have lived and died because of "maybe." Risk itself is based on the paradigm of "maybe."

As for me. Maybe has been a troublesome word. As a confessed pessimistic, "maybe" brings about a sort of paranoia. There are a lot of things I haven't said and done because I was afraid, or am afraid, of what "maybe" might bring. Take for example a simple thing as reciting in class. A "maybe" whispers to me that my answer might be wrong, and so I don't raise my hand. And the result is getting 0.8% out of 10% in class recitation. In bigger things, "maybe" is present too. When I like a person, there's so much I can't do because of "maybe." Maybe nothing will happen. Maybe she doesn't like you back. Maybe, maybe, maybe.. It can get pretty frustrating when you're frozen into inaction by all those maybe's buzzing in your head.

And why is "maybe" so strong? It's because it feeds on the imagination. Imagination is limitless, you know. But it can severely limit us, just by adding that one simple word - maybe.