“I don't regret anything I’ve ever done in life, any choice that I’ve made. But I’m consumed with regret for the things I didn’t do, the choices I didn’t make, the things I didn’t say.” - Trevor Noah in Born A Crime.

In this book, Trevor says that failure is an answer and, similarly, rejection is also an answer. Once we fail or things don’t work out the way we want, we know that path doesn't work, thus the right answer for ourselves must lie in other paths. We might feel hurt, disappointed, and hopeless but at least now we know that what mistakes or failures are to not repeat. At that moment, it might feel like the end of the world but we know that, eventually, things will work out, or looking back, we know that things did eventually work out like they often do.

What consumes us mentally over a longer period of time, though, is the question of “what if?” because we never get to know what the answer is and it could be looming over our head eternally.

It’s more freeing to know that at least we have experienced, no matter how positive or negative the experience was.