give up life for love?

Tonight after work I was supposed to have a French class but after waiting for half an hour for the teacher to show up, we all decided to give up and leave. As we were walking towards the metro station a couple of girls that I hadn't talked to before decided to grab a glass of wine and invited me to come with them. I happily did as I had just realized that communist alcohol store had closed and I wouldn't be able to get the wine I'd been planning on buying.

Said and done, we found a bar called Tranan, just next to the metro station. It was a pretty nice place, and the wine was decently priced for once. And the girls were very nice, a few years older than me and far more grown up. One had even bought a house with her boyfriend, something that I can perhaps see in a far distant future, but certainly not in the next couple of years. That didn't bother me though, but what did was that she told me that when she was 26, she'd been accepted to some school in New York, a place where she had always dreamed of moving to. But as she had just met her (now ex) boyfriend and was so in love she decided not to go.

I was having a very hard time understanding this. How can you give up your life long dream because of a guy? When you're 26? If he's the one he'll still be there in a year. Right? If not, he definitely wouldn't have been worth staying for.

I want no regrets in my life, especially not regrets of not doing what I dreamed of doing when given the opportunity. Of course I regret doing certain things, but at least I've tried, and sometimes failed. I've never not done anything because of fear, or because of someone else.

Perhaps I'm selfish, although I don't think that I am. But I would never give up on a dream because of another person. Because in the end, the only thing that's constant in my life is me, and I'm the one who's going to have to live with the decisions that I've made. And I would never be able to look myself in the eyes knowing that I've disappointed myself.