The comfort zone; stole my life but I am on a mission to take it back. I have been an introvert my whole life. It has been a difficult but rewarding journey to break out of my shell. I hope that my story will inspire other people to achieve their dreams. Remaining in my shell has always filled my life with regret; from asking that store vendor for a bargain or being to shy to order something you can’t pronounce. I have missed out on countless experiences because I was afraid of appearing dumb; this has been a vicious cycle of my life. I feared appearing dumb leading me to regret and self doubt. This cycle has deprived me of so much life. So I am urging everyone who reads this to go out and do something new for the first time. I really urge this because we will never know when our last day will come.

My regrets. While in Laos, I wanted to have ‘Khao Piek’ instead of ‘Pho’ due to I was eating Pho for four consecutive days as breakfast. I regret not trying to speak more to locals in Lao. So my fluency in Lao has remained the same. Meanwhile In Spain, I was too afraid order anything with an ‘R’ because of my inability to produce the ‘rolled r’ sound. I missed out on so many delicious foods because of fear, now I regret it everyday. If you only ever learn how to say pizza; all you will ever eat in life is pizza.

So I urge you, begging you to order that food you always wanted to try. Do that new hobby, go to that new place. Wear that new wacky colored shirt. I want you to do something new.