Never Miss An Opportunity

High on emotions that I am, going home after one and a half years, I cannot stop thinking about how wonderful my family is and how much I love them. I feel very strongly about my family, as I know do my cousins too. But I do not ever recall telling my elders that I am really blessed to be born into this family.

It was the summer of 2004. May. My board exam results were just out and I had stood third in my college, with a 98% in Phy-Chem-Mat. It really was time for jubilation. And what was more amazing was, it was my cousin's engagement the next day. It was double celebration. Since the engagement was in the morning, my dad decided to host a party in the evening. The party was for immediate family(which comes up to a count of about 30 odd people :)), and every one was high - on happiness and more.

And then, my uncle comes up to me and says, "Make a speech". I was like What! And I don't know why exactly, I felt very silly and shy to go up and speak! My cousins coaxed me, but I was mad and I declined. Then they gave up and they asked my cousin to speak. She went ahead and gladly did, talking about how happy she was, how she loved everyone and how she will miss everyone after she moves away.

After she spoke was when I realized what a magnanimous opportunity I had missed - an opportunity to actually tell my family how much I Reaaaaly love them and not feel very corny about it later on. And what was worse was, the come make a speech was a setup to actually give me a gift after I had spoken. They gave the gift later on, explaining what they had intended to do.

There aren't too many things that I regret in life. But this definitely is one. I regret not having done what I should have and for not saying what I should have. And that's why I say - Never Miss An Opportunity. The next time around, I shall not :)