I have continuously been given the advice that " We only regret the chances we don’t take.” When we reflect back on our lives, we regret the chances we didn’t take, not the ones that we did. But, being where I am at in life, in my early 20s, I can’t help but question this statement. Does everything happen for a reason? Or is this just a saying people use to feel better about situations they cannot fully understand the meaning?

When we take a risk in life, fully put ourselves out there, become vulnerable and when we just don’t know is on the other side of our decision. But, knowing all of this we still decide to make the decision anyway. And after you take that risk, on the other side everything could work out or not.

Recently, I took a chance. I became vulnerable and let myself be spontaneous when I immersed myself into a completely new situation. My reasoning was that I didn’t want to just do what was easy, or try to protect myself for what could happen in the future, because the reality is that we never know what actually is going to happen. Well, I was definitely right.

You don’t know what is going to happen at all and this certain situation turned out nothing how I thought it would, and not in a good way. Now trying to replay my decisions, attempting to make sense of it all, I can’t. I took a chance, and I am thinking now that maybe I should’ve thought it through more -- or taken it slower. But it took courage for me to make the decision, instead of playing it safe. And I guess that’s where the truth lies, because no matter the outcome to any chance we take it’s the fact that we had the courage to make the risky decision at all.

Even if the other side comes out to be terrible that is not what matters in the situation, it’s that you were able to put yourself out on the line no matter what the outcome was. That when you made your decision you knew it was going to be a risk, which means that there is a chance that it could end badly.

If I never made a risky decision, then I would never know what the outcome would be. It had the same chance of ending well, even though it didn’t I had to take the chance to see the outcome. And even though I can’t make sense of what happened it is hard to believe that everything happens for a reason when it is something negative. I am just proud that I had the courage and bravery to be open, honest even though it didn’t work out. And I know in the future that I will take the risk again in a new situation and, hopefully, it will work out better the next time.

“Courage is the commitment to begin without any guarantee of success.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.