I have made a lot of silly decisions in life, but I don't regret any of them. Why? Because I believe that these mistakes have shaped me into the person I am today. Yes: I believe all those cliche sayings about life, i.e. "everything happens for a reason", and "Live every day like its your last."

The summer before I came to college, I found a sign at the beach saying, "Eventually all the pieces fall into place. Until then, laugh at the confusion, live for the moment, and know that everything happens for a reason." If I had found that sign a year earlier, I probably would have laughed at it thinking it was just some cheesy quote, but instead, I bought it.

I kept that sign on my desk through out my first year at Susquehanna as a motivator. I was a little controlling in high school. I felt like things in my life had to be a certain way and I would blame other people if plans changed or something didn't go exactly how I envisioned.

I decided that I would try to change my philosophy a little bit for college. I tried to have a more go-with-the flow (for lack of better terms) attitude about things. Honestly, this philosophy changed me for the better! For example, if I don't do so well on a paper for my class, I try not to dwell on it because I know I worked as hard as I could. I will learn from my mistakes and do even better on the next one.

The way I look at it is we can't change the past so why regret it? Why should I regret something that I have no control over? I look back at some of my silly decisions as one of two things, either a learning experience or a great story to tell my friends who weren't there to see me make them. That's all you can really do with the past either share it or learn from it, but you shouldn't regret it.