One thing that is often taken advantage of or not thought of often enough is one of the most precious gifts that we are given in life, the incredible gift of time. Time is an incredible gift because it cannot be bought or extended. We are also unaware of how much time we each have as an individual. While some people may live to 95 years old, others may only live to 6 years old or 40 years old. I often hear people make the comment, “I’ll have plenty of time to do that when I’m older”. My question is, how do you know? What if you never get that opportunity when you’re older? I’ve always loved the saying, “The words you’ll most often regret are the ones that are left unsaid”. I couldn’t agree with that saying more. I like to say, “The actions that you don’t make will often be the ones that you regret the most”. I love these sayings because from my experience, the things that I didn’t say or the actions that I didn’t make are the ones that I do look back on and regret.

To me, it is really important to take opportunities that arise rather than thinking they can wait until later. These opportunities can include so many different things. The opportunity may be applying for a particular job that you’ve been wanting for awhile, joining an organization, taking a class that you might think will be too hard, taking up a new hobby, talking to that cute guy/girl that you ran into the other day, taking a chance on a new relationship, or just keeping up to date with your family and friends. Trust me, I know that life can get busy. At times it might even seem impossible to keep up with everything. It might feel as if your life is already too busy to take on another opportunity. This feeling might be why so many people end up putting certain things off until later, but if you can learn how to manage your time, you can get so much more accomplished. I didn’t realize this until I began nursing school. It is truly amazing how much you can do if you set your mind to it. You never know what these opportunities may bring to your life. One thing I can assure you though, is that putting your time into something will always be better than putting it into nothing. Time goes by far too fast not to take opportunities as often as you can. You never know if “‘later” will be an option.