Haunting you like a ghost in the night, the past is with you. It sticks with you for life, almost to the point that it scares you. Here's the catch: it DOES NOT haunt you unless you allow it.

"I've made too many mistakes..."
Can you imagine a life where everyone is perfect? I sure can't. If we were all "perfect", how would we be molded into the person we are meant to become? The mistakes we make teach us lessons. They teach us right from wrong. They give us CHARACTER. Now if we were all perfect human beings, we wouldn't have "character" and in my opinion, we would be completely and utterly BORING.

"It's too late..."
HEY YOU! It's never too late to make a change. For example: you slack in school for a semester and your GPA drops (yes, here's something EVERYONE can relate to). Does that mean your GPA stays low forever? No, not unless you allow it to! You have the POWER to make better grades. You have the POWER to make a change. Ultimately, life all boils down to choices. You may have made the wrong choice in the past, but now you can make a BETTER choice in the future.

Your past doesn't DEFINE you.
Yes, people may know about your life. They may know the mistakes you have made. They may THINK they know you, but the truth is: you're the only one who knows the real you. The past doesn't define who you are, it molds you. So don't get discouraged when you are laying down at night, hearing nothing but the sound of the voices in your head, wishing you could rewind and change the past. The past is something that cannot be redone, but the future still holds mystery. You have the power to change your future.

Moral of the story is this: the past is simply there to teach you life lessons and to hold memory, but it's not your future. Don't let people's opinions, or even your own thoughts, haunt you. This causes nothing but regret and sorrow in your heart. Be positive and keep your head up. The past does not define you.

"In order to love who you are, you cannot hate the experiences that shaped you."
- Andrea Dykstra