At 16, living with regrets is hard. All these things I wish I had never done, never said, but they happened. I could either beat myself up about these things or choose to simply learn from them. Sometimes, it’s hard to forgive yourself for things that are almost unforgivable and hurt so many people that you care the most about but what I’ve learned recently, is that those same people, need you to be okay. The ones who love you the most don’t want you to give yourself hell over the mistakes you have made even if you did hurt them. And if they did want you to suffer because of what you did, then maybe they don’t really care about you after all. Your past can make you or break you, meaning you can let it define you and have a miserable life or you can take it as a life lesson and come out a better person. I’d like to think coming out a better person and learning from my mistakes is a better way to handle things. Beating yourself up about the past doesn’t change things; trust me I know this, but becoming a better person does. Working on the things you don’t like and improving on the things you do is what changes things. Keeping yourself busy with friends and enjoying life even after doing something terrible is what makes the future brighter, and what you did in the past will never matter as much as what you choose to do tomorrow. What you did doesn’t make you who you are, it’s how and the way you move on that makes you, you. And this could very well be one of the most important lessons I have already learned in life.