I Am Gary Hampton.

“Phoebe: Ok, Ross, could you just open your mind like this much, ok? Wasn’t there a time when the brightest minds in the world believed that the world was flat? And, up until like what, 50 years ago, you all thought the atom was the smallest thing, until you split it open, and this like, whole mess of crap came out. Now, are you telling me that you are so unbelievably arrogant that you can’t admit that there’s a teeny tiny possibility that you could be wrong about this?”

Always consider that it’s possible that you might be wrong.

-gh

I’m growing my hair out.

I tried to grow my hair out in 2005. It got too hot so I cut it. (proof)

I tried again in 2007 but I got ambushed one day at work by a girl with scissors and the hair was soon gone. (proof)

This time I needed a reason to commit, because there are many reasons to give up and cut the hair, such as heat, comfort and (let’s be honest) appearance. So I committed to a cause I could get behind; Hair4Cancer. I grow my hair to 8-10″, I cut said hair and it gets donated to someone who needs it.

Now, here’s where the pressure and the guilt come into play…

It’s currently at 5″ after growing it since December. Which means I’d have to grow it until at least September to reach my desired length. That is, if my hair is even eligible for donation. Let’s just assume it is and let’s remember this point: my hair isn’t good. It’s long, it’s in the way, it looks terrible (I assume, I don’t really see myself much during the day but there is no lack of people to tell me this information) but I’ve made this commitment and I can’t back out now.

I relate it to entering some sort of Race for the Cure. You start with good intentions, then realize that this isn’t going to be a fun, easy race. It’s tough. It’s tiring, you get all hot and gross, and half way through the race you realize how easy it would be to just give in and quit the race.
This is similar in the way that I made a commitment to do something over the course of a period of time which will help someone, and am now at a point where it’s getting tough to keep that commitment. Would it really be so bad to give up now? Probably not. Is it really that big of a deal at all? No, probably not. But I’m not giving up half way through the race. Like Roosevelt said, “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty…“, even if that thing is as small as growing out your hair for a while.

So there it is. The hair is long, but it’s getting longer. Deal with it.

-gh