Two outs. The score is two to one, in favour of the opposing team. The batter makes his way into the batter box. He raises his bat and makes his form. The pitcher throws his first pitch. A floater. Strike one. The pitcher makes his second pitch. A submarine. Strike two. The pitcher makes his third. A fastball. Cluuuunk. As the bat makes contact and now the ball is airborne flying toward the centre of the field. The batter starts running, making his way to the first base. The second baseman failed to catch the ball. With pride in his heart, the batter makes his way to the second base. The ball makes its way to the outfield. The batter continues to run for the third base and finally goes home. A few meters left and it’s a tie. A few meters more and…. Thuuuuuug…. With the loud voice of the umpire. “Out. Game Set!!” The game is over. Yes, the game is really over. They lose the game. Many regrets filled the batter’s head but the loudest of it is. “I should have taken it easy and took one base at a time.” Dear Fellow Toastmasters, Soon to be Toastmasters and Guests. When you are asked by this question, what is life to you, we usually answered it in a form of metaphor. Life is a journey, Life is a book, Life is a story, etc... The meaning of life differs for every person but let’s be literal on this one, shall we? Life, as defined by Oxford Languages, means “the existence of an individual…” and when we say existence means the way of living to summarize this Life is the way of living of an individual. As we live our lives, we are forced to make our choices whether we like it or not. Some choices are easy like what you will eat for breakfast and some choices are not just like will I take a nap for five more minutes or will I stand up and prepare for work? While some needed a lot of thinking specially when your partner asked you what and where you will dine for today. Life is a cycle of choices that lead us to different roads or paths that we continue to walk until this day. Behind those choices, there are a lot of stories about gladness and regret. Gladness and regret are two sides of the coin. They are inseparable. But have you experienced a moment in your life, when you are just lying down and thinking about all of the regrets in your life? If you will ask me, I did, I do and I will. I think it’s all same for us. Now why don’t you try to guess my greatest regret in life? You’re all too serious. Let me share with all of you one of the greatest regrets that I have, and that is…… I didn’t clean our house. That’s it? Let me finish first. That’s the last request my mother made to me before she breathed last. I choose to finish a book rather than obey my mother. So what happened to that book? I threw it away. I don’t want to see that book in my library. But no matter how hard we think of those things, life is not something we can erase nor like a baseball game where we can have a comeback. What is done in life is done and no effort you can make to change it. This is the hardest truth we need to swallow but as we learn to accept that past is past, we will also learn to appreciate the present we have and look forward to the future that is about to come. Going back to my introduction, Life can also be compared to a baseball match. You are the batter of your own game and the pitches thrown at you are the challenges you will face. The bases are the road you will take in this life. You can always take the risk and run as fast as you can to reach home or you can take one base at a time and take it easy. Again, you are the batter and the runner of your life. It’s your life. Even with regrets, the batter held his head high because he knew he did his best. And so are we, despite all the regrets you think of every night, don’t forget to lift your head high because you did your best to thrive. Dear Fellow Toastmasters, Soon to be Toastmasters and Guests I thank you for your life. Don’t give up, God already prepare a winning game for all of us. As we reach that conclusion, that’s when I can say that the “Game is Set”.