“You never know unless you try”

One moment I am packing up my bags at a hostel I stayed at, in practically my own hometown. Two hours later (although it felt like the blink of an eye), I’m spending fifteen minutes on the phone with a Tokyo hairdresser, explaining in my best Japanese exactly what kind of haircut this wonderfully sweet Australian girl wanted for her last day in the city.

The piece of advice she wrote for me was “You never know unless you try,” a reminder to keep saying yes to life.

It’s something I pride myself on, actually: no matter what I do, however weird or niche it is, no one is surprised by me doing it. That’s the reputation I’ve cultivated for myself over the past couple of years: always down for a side quest.

What can I say? Life has such a wonderful way of surprising you. By saying yes and keeping myself open to new experiences (even ones that I know are not to my particular taste), I’ve learnt to find the silver lining in every situation and, more importantly, to discover parts of me I didn’t even know existed.

For my 18th birthday, my friend made a video compilation of all my friends answering three questions about me:

Their favorite thing about me
One word to describe me
A piece of constructive criticism, i.e. a weakness I could work on… (I know…)

Some friends teasingly answered the third question by saying that although my inability to say no is a weakness, it’s one they don’t mind. After all, it meant I spent countless hours helping them with their assignments and correcting their work when I could have been doing something a lot more fun.

I was well aware that I really struggle with saying no. It’s the kind of weakness people usually mention with a little smile, because it comes from a soft place: wanting to show up for the people around you. Of course, it’s left me with a few too many late nights and an overflowing to-do list.

But somehow, deep within me, it never felt like a weakness. I have never regretted helping a friend out or doing something I didn’t particularly want to do simply because someone asked me to.

And now I realize it’s deeper than that. Just like there can be no day without night, my yes and my no come from the same place. The door I can’t seem to close on people is the very same door that lets the whole world in. Because if saying no came easily to me, then saying yes wouldn’t come so easily to me either.

And honestly? I’d rather keep the door open. After all, you never know unless you try.