And you’re not really sure what to do. You are warned about the dangers of doing something different. You worry about which is the right path.

But you make your choice and you choose the more uncertain route. You find that things aren’t easy. Sometimes the path is “overgrown and strewn with thorns” (in the words of Sarah McLachlan). You think to yourself, dang, is this worth getting poison oak?

But soon you start to see the good things.

The further you travel, you experience more beauty and wonder than you ever imagined.

And you realize that if you never took the risk, accepted the challenges, you would never have been rewarded with such fulfilling experiences.

You decide it was worth all the risks, uncertainty, and scrapes along the way. Because in the end, it changed your life forever.

Life is what you make it.