Your closing quote reminds me of this that I read yesterday in a great post by Maria Rattray: “Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you

right. Forget about those who don’t. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would most likely be worth it.”

Here is Maria's story, https://medium.com/change-your-mind/theres-healing-in-the-natural-world-eadd9ee4e90a , in which I left a long comment that parses much of that quote and that you might find interesting.