The Universe Rewards The Brave
- Katherine Tatsuda
- Dec 9
- 2 min read
I don’t remember much about the Christmas movie The Noel Diary.
Not the plot, not the characters, not even why I liked it.
But I remember one line.
I don’t know who said it—or why—
but it landed in me like a truth I had always known and never heard:
The Universe rewards the brave.
Maybe it stayed with me because for so much of my life, bravery felt impossible.
I grew up inside fear—trauma-wired, careful, quiet.
Afraid to try new things.
Afraid to talk to people.
Afraid of being seen.
I didn’t realize then that courage isn’t a personality trait.
It’s a skill.
A muscle.
Something you grow the same way you grow anything—
slowly, awkwardly,
by choosing it one uncomfortable step after another.
There was no single moment when I became brave.
It was the accumulation of tiny choices:
saying yes when fear said no,
speaking up when silence felt safer,
letting myself be seen when hiding was familiar.
And sometimes bravery meant leaving everything familiar behind,
like the year I flew to Paraguay alone
to help facilitate transformational leadership training
for eighth and eleventh graders in a country
most Westerners never think to travel to.
I had no idea what I was stepping into—only that something in me said go.
That’s the part no one tells you:
bravery rarely feels brave in the moment.
It feels shaky.
It feels uncertain.
It feels like your comfort zone stretching at the seams.
Autopilot is easy.
The known is warm.
Staying small can even feel safe.
But nothing extraordinary grows there.
The magic lives in the expansion—
in the risks we take,
the conversations we dare to start,
the worlds we step into before we feel ready.
I still think about that movie line from time to time.
It reminds me of something I learned the slow way:
Bravery has never been about being fearless.
It’s about wanting a bigger life than fear would allow,
And doing it afraid.
And we get to choose that,
one small act of courage at a time.
