There are so many times in our lives where we will have opportunities of fleeting chance. Whether it is the option for a new adventure or a new relationship, we all have tough decisions to make. To an extent, it is important to remain conscious of how your choices will affect your life. That being said, overcomplicating, otherwise sound decisions, with irrational fears can lead us to not living life to the fullest. Choosing the safer option is not always best.

Leaving little room for chance leaves less room for pain, less room for heartbreak, less room to mess everything up. I feel like those older than me are always saying “you are only young once” and “these are the best years of your life,” but what does that change for me? Would I live my life differently if I knew I would have regrets later? Living life with regrets is living a life terrified of potential consequences. Its making choices based upon fear rather than opportunity. When people counsel you on the shortness of youth, what they are really saying is that youth is the time to make mistakes. Soon, you’re going to be old and have responsibilities and chores and bills and a mortgage, and you are going to look at your life and you are not going to want to have regrets. You are going to want to be the kind of person who tells their kids “Yeah, those were the best years of my life (insert reminiscent laugh here)."

This is the time to mess everything up and then pick up your life again.

This is the time to fall in love and then fall out of it.

This is the time do everything that you said “I’ll do that tomorrow.”

The worst kind of regret to have is knowing there was an opportunity that you missed. I can handle making bad choices and knowing they were bad, but my curiosity, from not taking the chance on an opportunity, would eat me alive.

I would hate to say I didn’t do something for a reason that I won’t care about in 30 years.

I would hate to say that I was holding back because I was afraid I would get hurt.

We all have fear. Next time you think you are the only one who is afraid, just know you are so wrong. Everyone is afraid.

Everyone is afraid of change, but also afraid of stagnancy.

Everyone is afraid of risks, but also afraid of inviolability.

People want to experience corruption and knowledge, but not deal with the consequences and not feel the hurt. Feeling pain means for a second you were careless even in the slightest or it means you cared too much. It means you weren’t thinking and you made a decision or maybe you had to say goodbye to something that was so special. It means you let yourself go, lost control, felt vulnerable and sometimes, from that hurt, comes the most rewarding feeling of all.

It’s important to embrace the good as it comes instead of fearing its damage.

The funny thing about pain is that it means you did something that made you feel alive.