Mistakes lead to the greatest growth
At first, I thought the transition to college was easy. After I arrived, I quickly settled into the atmosphere of eager students ready for the next step in their academic and personal lives. I thought I was ready and had prepared myself enough in the months leading up to the move. However, even as I arrived and began to find my place within the bustling activity of others and places around, there were and still are moments of intense unknown.
The months before arriving in Madison, I focused primarily on myself and spent most of my days reading or painting outside, riding horses, and being with friends. It was simple and pleasurable. I thought that my summer activities were the definition of who I needed to be for myself here on out, that I wouldn’t have to do anymore restructuring mentally because I’d reached a place of pure tranquility within my life.
Once I arrived in Madison, I spent two weeks with the same mindset as I had throughout the summer. However, I started to lose it due to being in a college environment. I began to scrutinize myself for falling off the path I’d always thought was the right one. College was obviously different from a simple summer in Michigan and I wasn’t ready for the challenges that I faced, primarily because they were situations I’d never imagined not having the solution to.
As these challenges hit me from every possible angle, I began to fall to the pressures of trying to find the perfect solution. A solution that would return me to the person I was in the summer months. This outlook was completely useless, in that in order to become the person I needed to be for myself in college, I had to let go of the person I was in the summer. The second I figured this out, the mistakes I was continuing to make and the harsh feelings I gave to myself made life much more easier to process and accept.
Now, as I venture through a new phase of my life, I’m working to understand the person I am at this given moment. I appreciate all of the events and experiences that have shaped the person I present to myself and others everyday. The process of experiencing life through your mistakes is an important contributor to developing the construct of self-hood. This has become an important tool for me as I still barely navigate the wild waters of what it means to be in college. The person I am at this moment, formed by my mistakes and experiences, is temporary. So, I’m trying to be kind and considerate to myself with the knowledge that time is fleeting and the person I choose to be today can be completely different tomorrow.