Never Take Risks

Never take risks because you don’t know what emotions, people, places or opportunities are awaiting you on the other side. 

Never take risks with traveling, because you may stumble upon somewhere unfamiliar. You may make new friends that you have more in common with than your friends back home. You may have exotic flings and learn how to cheers in a new language. While you're there, you may try bizarre food and learn that your sense of adventure is slightly larger than your appetite. You may become a vegetarian after tasting animals you only considered pets. You may realize that music is a global language, and that given the chance- you can lose yourself in any dance. You may love it so much that you decide to live in a new city full of people with accents more appealing than your own. That new place may even present you with an opportunity that leads to another, and that another, until you end up in East Africa at your dream job on lake Victoria with 80 degree days year-round. Most importantly, you will become addicted to traveling and you will no longer be able to pass up an opportunity to set off on a new adventure.

Never take risks with your health and safety, because you may learn just how much stress your body can endure. You may fall off a raft into grade 5 rapids in the Nile River, but you will eventually surface and want to do it again. You may freeze your ass off in the snows of the Andes when you set off unprepared with a map you don’t understand, but you will reach the top of the mountain and feel more alive than you thought possible. You may climb so many Incan stairs, you lose count, but the burn in your legs will make you feel accomplished for days. And when that gets old, you’ll sweat out all the toxins from your travels at a remote bungalow on a river in the Amazon, where you may even realize you enjoy being off the grid. You may run out of drinking water on a hike to a coastal waterfall in Australia, and have to turn back, but the scenery along the way will make the lesson worth it. You may contract rare diseases and sample healthcare in a foreign country, which might just make you appreciate your own system. You may feel like giving up because the weight on your shoulders is too great and the blisters on your feet too painful, but every step you take will bring you one step closer to your destination. And every bruise, cut, and near-death experience will build character and make you more interesting.

Never take risks on men, because they will let you down, break your heart, and alter the course of your life. But in the process, their endearing looks will make you feel beautiful and special. They will share their hobbies with you, and you may even realize you are obsessed with rock climbing. They will show you they care through tender kisses when their friends aren’t looking. They will make you breakfast in bed when you’re too lazy to get up and do it yourself. They will call you just to say goodnight and they will hold you when everyone else is nowhere to be found. They will make you laugh with their bad jokes and make your blood boil when they don’t intuitively understand your every desire. But when it’s all over, you will smile because you fell so hard and loved so intensely that you almost forgot to take other risks.

Never take risks, because when your time does come to an end, you won’t remember that they were even risks to begin with. You will have lived a life full of adventure and love, and you will be familiar with what the world has to offer. You will never have to wonder if you could have climbed that mountain, because the view from the top will be seared into your memory, and you will be fulfilled.