REGRET

Whenever someone asks me what my biggest fear is in life, I always say regret. I genuinely do not think there's anything worse than feeling regretful of something - but not so much regretting doing something; more so having not done something.

My friends often come to me for boy advice (although I'm not sure why because I don't exactly have the best track record when it comes to my love life) and one of the first things I usually say to them is 'are you going to regret it if you don't do it?'. Take this situation, for example: one of my best friends' boyfriend broke up with her towards the end of last year. She found it super difficult and still really liked him, he came crawling back in the new year but - even though she still liked him - she didn't know whether to kind of revive the situation. Not only did he treat her quite badly the first time around, she was considering everyone else's opinions - I mean, the common opinion is why go back to an ex, never mind an ex who treated you badly, right?

I've been there; this whole situation of going back to someone that your friends don't think you should go back to is a tricky one but, ultimately, I think you have a gut feeling when it comes to these situations. Or at least, I tend to. For me and my experience of this situation, I will always go back if I think the person is worth it. I'm a firm believer of following your heart, and if you want to do something then you should - no matter what other people think; at the end of the day, if they're your friends, they'll support your decision no matter what.

If you're unsure about a situation but there's a part of you that wants to - no matter how small - I would also say do it. In a boy situation or any other situation, I often have the outlook of what's the worst that could happen? Think of it in this way: you give it a go, it doesn't work out - at least you gave it a shot; or you try and it works out - it's a dream, but you never would've known if you didn't give it a go. But, for me, there's nothing worse than half wanting to do something, but then not doing it and that 'what if?' is constantly in your mind. If you don't give it a go, you never know and that 'what if?' can become a daily thought. That regret can manifest itself so quickly and easily.

Okay, let's rewind a few (a lot of) years - I was probably 9 at the time and I went on holiday with my family to Ireland. We got the ferry over to Dublin and, at the time, the ferry company were doing a promotion where they'd pick a random family travelling on the day to be the 'family of the day' and said family got upgraded and kind of a 'behind the scenes' experience; part of which included the opportunity to go into the cabin and 'drive' (obviously it was autopilot) the ferry. As I'm sure you've figured out, my family were the family of the day on this particular day. Me, being the scared little girl I was, turned down the opportunity to drive the ferry and - as pathetic as it sounds - it's still one of my biggest regrets to this day, and I'm now 21.

The point is: life's too short to not do the things you want to do. Message the boy you want to message, tell him you like him. Apply for that dream job even though you don't have every single  skill that's on the job description. Drive that ferry even though you're scared (it's on autopilot mode anyway!). If you want to do it, do everything you can to do it. It might be scary, and it might be hard but there's nothing harder than having to come to terms with the fact that you've passed up an opportunity that you might not get again. That's the kind of regret that can follow you forever.