Trying

Question 2

Which is worse, failing or never trying?

Well, the answer that you'll probably hear most of the time is that never trying is worse. And for many situations this is true. Research suggests that people tend to regret more that which they didn't do, rather than that which they did.

So how might this apply to my own life? I backed out of the opportunity to go to graduate school to study neuroscience, for one. Several people encouraged me to go give it a try, but ultimately I decided that it just wasn't worth it to me. To this day I still wonder what could have been. But then I read yet another article about the perils of academia and the abysmal state of funding for biomedical research and I feel a little better. If I had gone and "given it a try," I fear that it would have been very hard to quit midway. Do I still feel a degree of envy for the grad students and PhDs that I know? A little bit. But at the same time, many of them have left academia (or don't plan on staying in it). I think I made the right decision. You really need a huge passion for science and research to make it worth it. Like my good friend YouTube Guy!

In the end however, I think it is generally better to try and fail then to never try at all, as long as the possible benefits outweigh the risks. I'm a rather risk averse person, I'll admit it. Perhaps excessively so, and I can't say I'm in the best place in life right now, largely because of my inertia and fear of change. But at the same time, I am willing to "try" things when they feel right to me. I know it took me years of self-analysis, but eventually I worked up the nerve to try my hand at dating and coming out as gay. I'm still waiting on the long term benefits of this decision (where's my "It Gets Better"?) but it still took guts and I'm proud of myself for it. My "trying" improv led to me eventually joining a troupe, and I'm still enjoying that decision.

Now I just need to figure out what to try next.