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Julia Magsombol (she/her/hers), Low Entropy Volunteer Writer

 

What if we had a second chance to get things right? What if we had another chance to change everything and grab each opportunity we missed? 

 

Sounds interesting. I know some of us wish for that in our lives. 

 

Unfortunately, time travel doesn’t exist like in the movies we watch. The past has passed. We don’t have the chance to change it anymore, and we must live in the present.  

 

We often hear from people that we shouldn’t let go of any opportunities that may come our way. We must capitalize on those openings as soon as possible or we will have failed. 

 

It’s true that opportunities can lead to success and bring us closer to our goals, whether those opportunities involve jobs, love, friendship or family.

 

However, we also miss some opportunities. Or, perhaps, a lot. 

 

Indeed, feeling that we’ve missed a chance in every opportunity is pretty annoying. The moment we realize that we could’ve done better to capitalize on an opportunity can be painful to think about. We wish we could have time travelled and changed some of our past actions. We regret a lot of things and blame our past actions. 

 

Because of our missed opportunities, we keep chasing more opportunities in different places and times. We don’t want to regret anything like before. We keep hunting those elusive doors. 

 

And while we’re chasing those opportunities, we lose sight of the things we already have, the past successes we have gained. We risk a lot of precious things while seeking those doors.

 

Let’s put it this way: a kid who is currently eating a lollipop is running to get more lollipops. The kid keeps running from store to store to get more lollipops because he wants more. The kid keeps losing sight of the things around him. Then, in a sudden moment, a truck drives along and hits the kid. The kid lost a life that was worth more than any lollipop.   

 

The moral of the story is that we risk something in every opportunity we take, and may perhaps lose something important. It’s common to fail when chasing opportunities, even if we give everything we’ve got. In doing so, we might be losing something way more valuable than the opportunities we’re longing for.

 

It’s difficult to give up opportunities when we have a lot of plans for the future. Believe me, I’m still in the process of becoming better at this. It is never easy. While I’m still learning, I’ve noted some of the things I try to keep in mind.

 

1. Let the missed opportunities go. 

 

Missed opportunities lead to feelings of regret and failure. We may have a hard time moving on and we might keep repeating in our heads the things we could’ve done to capture them. But what can we do? They’re already gone. The past has passed, and the only thing we can do is accept our failures peacefully to move on from them. The next opportunities we find and create for ourselves could be 10 times better than what we lost. 

 

1. Opportunities are always there. 

 

People say that we shouldn’t let go of the opportunities. People say that like it’s a rule that we already have those chances in our hands, and we must not let go of them. But the truth is, we don’t initially have any opportunities in our hands. We must find opportunities. We must create them on our own. We have a choice. And so opportunities are always there, as long as we live. We don’t have to risk everything and lose sight of the valuable things around us to achieve something.  

 

1. Take everything at a reasonable pace.

 

It is alright to take things slowly. It is okay if we haven’t achieved our goals and haven’t gotten our opportunities yet. Life is not a race. We should take everything at our own pace, not others’.

 

What is the one thing that comes to your mind when you think of opportunities? For me, they aren’t doors that only open once. There are thousands of doors out there that will open for all of us in our own time if we keep finding them and creating them, without rushing things. 

 

We must try to put away some of the heavy things we carry from our past to freely enter the doors of our future opportunities. 

 

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Julia Magsombol is currently a journalism student from Edmonton, Canada, who desires to bring hope to people through her writing. When not writing or reading, you can catch her sewing clothes, painting nature and drinking instant coffee.