What if?

A friend has found himself at a crossroads, and we were discussing his next career move. He was torn between something he had to do, and something he needed to do. I wasn't quite sure I completely understood the nuances of "have-tos" and "need-tos" versus "have-tos" and "want-tos," but I could see where he was coming from, and I could somehow relate.

I used to think that deciding on something--whether on a course, a career, a relationship, a friendship--meant that all the what-ifs went out the window. I mistakenly believed that "being sure of something" meant that you would never wonder about all the other enticing options that come your way. But I've realized something: Life is so rich that one can never experience everything there is to experience, no matter how hard one tries. The human mind is perpetually curious (at least, the non-idle ones--the best kind!--are), so that it will always have questions about paths that its host didn't choose. It is impossible for one person to satisfy all of his or her curiosity, and so I've realized that it is also quite impossible to rid oneself of what-ifs.

No matter what path you take, there will always be what-ifs. It is a matter of making a choice and sticking to it, of recognizing what is truly important despite all the alluring, yet off-tangent, paths that spring up. It's about being comfortable in not knowing what the what-ifs would have brought.