Ever seen “Yes Man”? For those who haven’t, it’s a comedy film from 2008 starring Jim Carrey in the shoes of a man who leaves his negative ways to say “yes” to literally everything. Well, this week I went “Yes Man” on everyone and vowed to go five days saying “yes” to everything legal and non-harmful that might come my way. 

Day 1

I started this project Friday night, right after I’d admittedly refused to attend a football game with a friend. It’s alright, I said to myself, it was before I actually started. I went to the dinner no one ever attends before my usual Friday night club meeting. A good friend of mine invited me to a get-together that same night and, although I was tired, I went. It was a fun time with friends, nothing unusual or extraordinary for the first day.

Day 2

I said “yes” to the “snooze” button about five times and slept until eleven. I ate a nice breakfast and got a text from a friend asking if I wanted to go to Confession that afternoon. “Yes, I do indeed want to go to Confession.” After a fruitful time at Reconciliation I was feeling great about saying “yes” to everything that came my way. I agreed to cook a nice Italian meal for a couple of friends, I said “yes” to the delicious Parmesan dip they had prepared for me and I was loving life. “Do you want to hang out tonight?” I got another text from yet another friend, so I proceeded to leave dinner and head over to his apartment where he asked if I wanted to go to a concert with him, his roommate and his co-worker. At this point I thought, yikes, is it alright for me to skip out if I have to spend money? However, two hours and twenty dollars later I was standing at an unknown venue listening to an unknown band and – for the first time possibly ever – definitely underdressed for the occasion.

Day 3

Afraid I was going to be caught off-guard by unusual offers, I started initiating things I actually wanted to do. I invited some friends to cook brunch after Mass and I asked if they wanted to study afterwards. I got good at dodging questions like, “Anyone want to work out?” by pretending not to hear and, “Want to go out for food?” with, “Only if you’re offering.” I answered the phone when I would have normally let it ring, and I volunteered for something I’ve never done before. Overall, Sunday was a good day.

Day 4

On Monday I took an extra half-hour for work, and I went to my classes. I made dinner with a few old friends where I unfortunately happened to pull up an old profile picture of a guy I thought was cute. They told me to like it. I had to.

Day 5
I got cornered into promising I’d catch an Uber this upcoming weekend to attend a football viewing night I don’t have a ride to. I also found myself agreeing to extra topping on my Pieology pizza.

At the end of the five days, I must admit I was disappointed by the lack of excitement this experiment brought forth. In retrospect, in fact, nothing even comparable to “Yes Man” happened to me, and I could sum up these days just by saying I hung out with friends more than I normally do. Giving it a second thought, however, that’s not so surprising. This week, in fact, I never went out of my way to do something I wouldn’t normally want in my life and no one asked me to do anything crazy. What happened, then, is that I was simply open to things I know I need more of. This gave me the excuse to push myself to spend more time with the people I love, to say yes to the friend I know needs me and to try those things I’d always been too shy to.

I originally thought I’d get to the end of my five days in a state of exhaustion. I thought I’d be writing about how good it is to actually say no but the thing is, unusual opportunities are rare. It’s the mundane gems we need to keep an eye out for and maybe learn to say “yes” to a little more often.

Leti Mariani can be reached at mari8259@stthomas.edu