Life is not a crossroad, it is a marathon

One could say that the roads of life resemble the mountain paths. You set out without knowing which crossroad will lead you to the peak or to a dead end. You stand before them, and you must choose. And, as often happens in such moments, you choose the safest path — the one that frightens no one. Every time you look back, you can still hear the echo of the other path calling your name.

It’s not that you regret it, for life unfolds in its own way and fills you with moments. However, there are hours when silence grows heavy, and that “what if” from the past returns, whispering unsettling questions: What if I had left then? What if I had said the “yes”, while I was too afraid to say? What if I had let my heart speak louder than my mind?

This thought doesn’t hurt, but it stands like a shadow quietly beside you. You walk, and you think you see the version of yourself who was afraid to move forward walking ahead of you — as if aware that you ignore him, as if he had seen the future before it unfolded and came back only to judge you.

That’s the time you realize no one truly knows what the right choice is — and perhaps it doesn’t even exist. Every decision is merely a direction that may or may not align with the choices of nature and of others around us. After all, our lives are shaped by an endless chain of actions and reactions — of living and non-living forces — and the only way to know whether your decisions are in harmony with reality is through time itself.

So, based on these reflections, you must not chase what never happened, but embrace what is. The road you didn’t take isn’t lost — it lives within you and reconciles itself with the opportunities you are no longer afraid to seize. Once, you thought life was a series of crossroads. Now you know it’s a marathon — one that brings you closer to your true self.

As Thomas Edison once said, during his quest to invent the electric light bulb: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 999 ways that won’t work.”

P.S. Never forget that persistence is the key — and every setback is simply one more step toward success...