Not in the Cards

The rules of No Limit Texas Hold 'Em are fairly simple. You get two cards face down, you bet, then three cards are turned face up on the table, you bet again, then a fourth card, another round of betting, and finally a final card with a last round of betting.. Then you, and everyone you're playing against, get to use the two down cards, and the five on the table, to make the best five card poker hand possible. The reason it's called gambling is because you don't know what cards the other people are holding, so for the most part, you play the odds. You look at the cards on the table and the cards in your hand, and you take a chance that what you have will win. Rarely is winning a hand a sure thing.

Life is a lot like that. Everything in life you do is a gamble. What should I have for dinner? What car should I get? What job should I try for? Who should I date? You may have a good idea of where things are going to go, but in reality, you just don't know. Nothing is ever one hundred percent guaranteed. You may go to your favorite restaurant and order your favorite dish, but today, they have a new chef and it's not nearly as good as you hoped. You can do all the research you want, but that car you buy might have a stiff steering wheel or slow braking. You can go to school and plan on becoming a lawyer, but soon realize that the law isn't what you thought it was going to be. And you may think you've found the perfect person for you, but their cards turn out to be better than yours and there's nothing you can do but tip your hat to them and say, good hand.

You can go through life folding every hand and you'll stay in the game a while, but you won't have a lot of fun and eventually your money will run out. You can play conservatively and you'll win some and you'll lose some, but you'll never get too high or too low. Or, you can take a chance and go all in. Sometimes it'll pay off and you'll reap the rewards and get everything you've ever dreamt of. But sometimes you'll lose everything and end up writing about it in an online blog while comparing your life to a card game.

However, the nice thing about life is that although it might take a while, there's another game waiting for you to buy in. And maybe, just maybe, this time when you go all in, you'll win.