Why I Decided to Write

"In the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take."

I've heard this quote several times in various forms all over the Internet and in books. There are lots of things that happened in my mind when I first read it.

Regret is inherently a deep sadness about missed chances, and not only that, but acknowledging that the time for repairing the thing you regret--or in this chance taking the chance--is gone. It means you accept the loss of that thing. Regret is much deeper than sadness. It's a multi-layer, multi-level state of mind.

My grandfather never wrote his memoirs, though he had one of the most fascinating life stories I've ever heard. As he lay on his death bed, passing away slowly and painfully from aggressive Melanoma, I remember looking at him and thinking, "I wonder if there was anything in his life that he wished he could do and didn't." I didn't have the chance to ask him.

I was afraid to be like him, to be lying on my deathbed and wondering where the hours and days went, where those healthy moments when I could have done something productive and fulfilling went.

When he passed, I felt compelled to write. I always had been a creative person, and it made even more sense after seeing him pass, to pick up a pen and just ... go. I started writing in composition books with whatever writing utensil I could find. I reveled in the sound of pencil lead scraping paper, of stories unfolding, of villains giving up pieces of themselves for extreme passions, of heroes standing up and fighting corrupted dreams. Through rescuing my characters from plain and therefore terrible fates, I saved myself.

This book I'm writing is a product of realizing that life is short, and there is NO time to be storing up ideas for one day. One day is TODAY. My hands work. My mind works. My imagination is still fresh and still active. NOW is the time to pick up the pen and write.

It's time for any of you out there to pick up the pen and write.

Don't allow yourself the chance of waking up one day and regretting the chance you didn't take.

<3