An Appreciate for Making Life Mistakes

When I was in high school, I wanted to be out of high school.

I wanted go out in the big world, to be free, to explore, to see what was next.

I felt constrained by teen living and wanted the next step, though I wasn’t sure what it was, yet.

For a long time I thought it was college, but that turned out not to be the case… or only half so.. well actually a quarter so.

I remember wanting to drop out so bad, this one time in particular. In my memory, the scene plays out with me rolling around on my bed, crawling out of my skin and clearly thinking, “I just want to sell everything and roam.”

(I feel like I have these thoughts documented in a journal, which I recently picked up from my mom’s storage unit and will be reading through shortly)

Then I started reading and I was obsessed with growth and learning.

I read books, listened to stories, talked with older people, soaking up knowledge that would help me dodge obstacles, allowing me to move more swiftly forward.

I soaked up all the second-hand lessons.

“I wish I would have traveled more.”

“Read the top 5 regrets of the dying.”

“Be friends with older people.”

“Stop caring what other people think.”

“Fail quickly while you’re still young, you have time to recover.”

I worked diligently to follow well-intended advice.

But what I’ve come to realize is that mistakes, failures, lessons are part of the game of life.

You can avoid some but you will make others… and just because you missed that one doesn’t mean the next won’t be comparable.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes and I’m, for the most part, pretty proud of them. As the saying goes, “I’ve learned more from my failures than my successes.”

And I’ve failed a lot.

I’ve also made mistakes.

They’ve brought me to where I am, teaching me valuable lessons along the way.

Did I dodge some mistakes that led me to more costly others? Probably.

Do I wear my failures proudly? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t change some if I could.

I think the things is, mistakes are inevitable, in all capacities. We can’t dodge them all, it’s part of life… just try to dodge the ones you can (and don’t make the same ones, again).