Do You Take the Risk?

Dear Vocal Readers,

Oh, decisions, they can't all be easy, can they? We make countless choices each day of our lives. You decide what you want to eat in the morning, or if you even have enough time to eat a breakfast. You pick which way you drive to work, trying to calculate which route will get you there the fastest. No matter what the decision is, a choice is made and we don't always give it much thought. It's not that I hate decisions, it's the hard ones that kill me.

They say to try and live your life with no regrets. But how are we supposed to know if we will regret something before we have made our choice? Something that has always stuck with me is a quote from the great Levi Ackerman of Attack on Titan: "The only thing we're allowed to do... is to believe that we won't regret the choice we made." I've tried to live my life in a way that I'm proud of. I've thought through tough decisions and hoped that the choice I made was the right one. But even though I have tried my best, I know that not every decision I've ever made have been the smartest.

So as I continue going through my life, I realize that I will continue to make decisions that may not be for the best. We are human, and we will make mistakes sometimes. Whether they are purely out of emotion or lacking emotion, we can be extremely impulsive in our actions. A friendship can be broken with a single sentence. You can even dedicate your whole life to someone else with the simple words, "I do". So how do we go about making decisions? We know we will continue to stumble, so how do we choose to live from here?

This is where risk comes in. Will the possible good of the situation outweigh the possible bad? Will you end up regretting your choice? Who knows, and that's why it's risk. We have no way of knowing how our lives will play out or what crazy thing could happen to us in a single day. Do we go with our heart? Or do we go with our head? Who is to say which is the right way to go? The worst part is that we won't know the outcome until it plays out for itself. It's times like these where I have an appreciation for math. There is always an answer, and even if it takes a while getting there, a solution is always found. We could spend our time thinking about how easy life would be if we simply had the answers to everything and every worry, but that won't solve anything unfortunately. Life isn't math.

Now that we know risk is involved, we have two options. We can play it safe and take the easy route. Or, we could take that risk. We could see where it goes and end up being so grateful that we took that risk. Or we could end up hurt. Hurt and feeling stupid that we even took the risk to begin with when we knew the possible consequences. The hardest part is when you desperately want to take that risk, but you can't help but see the bleak future. Is it just a negative outlook or are you being realistic? Again, who knows? You alone make these decisions. You are the judge, the jury, the defendant and the prosecution in your own trial.

Decisions like these can be summed up in one word: rough. You must figure out where your priorities are and what you truly want for your life. There's so much pressure when it comes to making the right choice, but we don't see the lessons we learn from making the wrong ones as well. We fall, we get back up. The cycle continues throughout our whole lives. If anyone were to have a life filled with absolutely no regrets I would salute them, but it just doesn't happen like that. Life isn't easy. Hell no is it easy. We just have to try to make the best choices we can while we go ahead on our journeys. Try to make the choice we will regret the least. Will we get hurt? Yes, we will. Over and over again because that's life. The question is if you will let the possible pain stop you from taking that risk. Will you stand your ground or will you slowly break down that wall and accept what you really want?

It's all up to you, so try to choose wisely.

Sincerely from my ever-confused mind,

Kacie