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There Are No Such Things as Mistakes

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Karina Collins Student Contributor, Oxford College of Emory University
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Jordan Chapman Student Contributor, Oxford College of Emory University
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Oxford Emory chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

There are no such things as mistakes. This is not a widely accepted concept, even for me, and I am constantly complaining about how I messed up this or that. However, there is the widely accepted belief that you are meant to learn from your mistakes. So what if we were to change ‘mistakes’ to ‘regrets’ and combine these two statements— then we come to the understanding that there should be no regrets, only mistakes that we are to learn from so they don’t recur in the future.

What would your college experience be if you didn’t make a few mistakes? College is a time for people to try new things, go out on a limb and do something they never would have thought have doing before. But sometimes these decisions go awry and don’t turn out the way they were originally envisioned. Sometimes you regret the all nighter you pulled because you didn’t start studying for a test until the night before or a drunken text you wish you had never sent, but you shouldn’t! You can’t live agonizing over mistakes you made. These decisions make and mold you into the person you are now. My friend put it best when she said, “This is the shit show that is your life, accept it.” These wise words are some that I now live by. These mistakes may seem like a ‘shit show’ now, but looked at what you’ve gained from them: an experience and knowledge. The experience is a learning one, and the knowledge that of what you should and shouldn’t do next time your presented with a similar situation. Sometimes, it takes a few of the same mistakes before you learn from them, but you will eventually gain something from it.

Yes, I’ve made some questionable decisions, and sometimes I think, ‘I kind of wish that didn’t happen.’ But then I realize that I wouldn’t be who I was if I didn’t allow myself to try new things and make these mistakes. Its easy to say that you can learn from other’s mistakes, and some people do, but it’s much easier to learn from your own mistakes. So yeah, go out and have fun, wait to long to start a paper, stay up too late—these are the things that you’ll learn from until you eventually figure out just what you’re supposed to be doing.

Image Credit: Image 1

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Karina Collins

Emory '19

Karina is a senior majoring in Anthropology and Human Biology at Emory University, currenlty contemplating what to do with her life post-graduation. In her free time she enjoys spending too much time on instagram and pinterest, traveling, eating too much food, watching Indie movies on Netflix, and going to concerts of her favortite punk rock bands. Most likely doing all of this with a cup of coffee in her hand. 
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Jordan Chapman

Oxford Emory

Jordan Chapman is a visual art and international studies major with a French minor at Emory University. As a second year student, she's incredibly busy, but when you add jetsetting and writing a blog (in addition to a Youtube channel), her life is more busy than you may think. When she isn't watching Stranger Things or writing blog posts, she's in class or sending emails, with the dream of being the next big editor or fashion blogger. As a future London expat and wanderlust victim, she visits the land across the pond quite frequently along with many other places in Europe frequently, just hoping that life will take her somewhere fun and exciting.