Delightful Gabby is the opposite of a tech snob. She likes to collect music, but does so on CD, believing the sound quality on CDs is better than when music is compressed electronically. She loves to dress up in different lingerie outfits, but she’s also a down to earth girl who likes racing on television and indulges her guilty pleasures often. She likes to watch horror movies and make fun of them with her friends.
“Stop and think about how your typical horror movie goes, “ she says. “These people just have no survival instinct. Most normal people would not make the decisions that these people in the movies make. It isn’t normal, when you find murder victims, not to immediately get the police, or get help. It isn’t normal to split up and go off amongst themselves. And some horror movies are so ridiculous because if just one of those people had a gun and could defend themselves with it, the movie would end and that would be that. But I guess that’s the idea, isn’t it?”
Gabby admits that she loves horror movies because she likes to suspend her disbelief and indulge in the play-acting of fear. People love to be scared as long as the stakes aren’t too high and they aren’t really scared. We love to get those vicarious thrills, she explains, but we don’t actually want to be in real danger. Just as when we go on amusement park rides, the simulation of danger brings us thrills, but we know deep down that everything is perfectly safe... so much so that when an accident occurs on an amusement park ride and people actually get hurt, it’s big news. Why, it’s big news even if nobody is hurt, precisely because the thrill ride is the simulation of danger and not the real thing.
“I think it’s the luxury of being entertained in a way that real people can’t be,” Gabby says. “You would feel a lot different if you were watching a documentary where the people in the film were actually being murdered at the end. And you would feel that much more differently about it if you thought there was any danger that you could be murdered yourself while watching it. I mean, wouldn’t you? So when you enjoy a horror movie, you’re just kind of teasing yourself. It has nothing to do with real danger, and there’s no real risk. There’s nothing that would actually cause you to have to face your real fears of mortality or consequences.”
Gabby believes in living her life without fear and says that to her, fear stops you from truly immersing yourself in the gift of and the joy in your life. “Think about the greatest obstacle you’ve ever faced,” she says. “You might say resources or opportunities. You didn’t have access to the thing you wanted. The thing you wanted was too expensive, or it wasn’t where you needed it to be, or you just couldn’t get to it in the time available and while you had the chance. It’s a question of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or more accurately, never being in the right place at the right time. That’s what you tell yourself, anyway. But the fact is, if something is important to you, you’ll move heaven and earth to get to it. You’ll do whatever is necessary to be in the right place at the right time. You’ll make time because, once something is your priority, it’s the thing you throw all your effort and resources at. So what is really holding you back?”
Gabby explains that the thing that’s holding you back is real fear. It isn’t the simulated fear of thrill rides or horror movies, but a real aversion to risk. We’ve got to be willing to take risks in life, she explains, because only then can we achieve our goals despite the real dangers that reality puts in front of us every day. Fear can paralyze us and stop us from going after what we want. We’ll never reach our dreams that way. Gabby is very passionate about fighting past that fear.
“Very early on in my life I decided that fear would never have any power over me,” she says. “Fear is the paralysis that freezes you when you most need to move and seize your goals. I won’t let that become who I am. I won’t hold back or delay my dreams. I’m going to seize the opportunity to do the things I’ve always wanted to do. I’m going to go after that brass ring. Every big dream, every goal, involves a leap of faith. I’m ready to take that jump. And if I can do it while I’m wearing next to nothing, great.”
