What's your biggest regret? Take a while...think about it. It might be that you did poorly on a big test for school or that you made a choice that you look back on every day wishing you could change it. Everyone has regrets. Things at that moment didn't seem too terrible, but two days later it was the biggest mistake of your life. Unfortunately, mistakes have repercussions. Whether it's not doing so well in a class or turning away a guy that you wish you didn't, the option to fix that mistake might be gone. Recently, I made a mistake. I did something that I shouldn't have, but in the moment, I didn't think too much into it. After you make your mistake, you don't think about it because you didn't know it was a mistake in the present time. To you, it's just another ordinary action. It's only when you're in the future do you realize that your action was the wrong thing. Eventually, one day, your mistake comes back. This time, though, you see that action tagged along with other things. Suddenly, it's "because you did this, you can't or have to do this." The consequences for said action might not be terrible. Your action might actually have a positive outcome, but other times it's negative and I believe those are the times when you have to know yourself the most.
College. It's the place where you find yourself, right? Right. At such a critical time in our lives when we're so busy finding out who we are, what we stand for, what we value, and what we're going to do with the rest of our lives, mistakes and regrets are bound to happen. You're going to fail a test, break someone's heart, have your heart broken, think you can do something that you can't, and worst of all, you'll do something you can't fix afterwards. Sometimes we receive harsh consequences for our actions and we learn from those mistakes. Consequences are necessary every now and then to make sure people are always on the right track. Let's think about the first semester of freshman year. In the very beginning, you're still who you were in high school with just a little extra college experience under your belt. You experience a bunch of different things and you're faced with different situations. These experiences are how you find yourself. Second semester of freshman year comes around and you basically consider yourself a pro at knowing yourself and your values because that was all tested the first semester and you killed it. What happens when you make a mistake and you have to deal with the consequence? You start to maybe feel bad about yourself, questioning the good qualities you do have, and the kind of person you were so sure you were. It's possible that you call your parents in tears, asking them for confirmation that you're not a bad person, that you're still the caring, kind and positive person you were when you left for college already a year ago. Guess what? You are still caring, kind and positive. This mistake doesn't change you.
I'm here to tell you that you aren't your mistakes. You made that decision at that moment for a reason. Whether it's because you weren't paying attention or you didn't think it would have any negative effects, you did it. Now it's time to take that consequence or mistake and grow from it. Learn from it. Don't make that mistake again and make the decision to think before doing. Be confident in who you are, what you believe in, and what you value. There's nothing people hate more than seeing a confident person. It's because they envy your confidence. If you make a mistake and someone tries to tell you that you aren't what you thought you were, don't listen. Don't deny your mistakes and regrets; own them. Use them to learn about the world we live in and the people around you.
As the great rapper Drake once said:
