The M-Word

"At the end of the day, let there be no excuses, no explanations, no regrets." -Steve Maraboli

          "Seniors 2013. No Regrets." Remember the phrase every senior would say at least once during their final year of high school. We have all heard some form of it or another. When you look past the you-only-live-once-so-do-whatever-you-want mentality and arrive at the true essence of the quote, you realize how true it actually is. I think we have all heard that you should never regret your mistakes because each of them makes you who you are. That being said, I am very hesitant to call deciding to come to St. Andrews the m-word. It may have fallen short of expectation, but I would not take back the 3 and a half months I spent at St. Andrews. I met so many people from all over the world (a German boy on my left and a South African girl across the table in Biology labs). I get the chance to see Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Rome, Madrid & Barcelona, places that I probably never would have fathomed visiting if I had not chosen to go to St. Andrews.

        I have come to the conclusion that over the years I have adopted a somewhat-pessimistic point of view. I would think about all the mistakes I made, the money I lost and the time I wasted.  And that is a terrible way to look at life. And I would much rather focus on what I gained instead of what I lost.  Yes, I may have missed out on the traditional American college experience my first semester out, but I had so many new experiences by going to St. Andrews and learned so much about myself.  I don't see my first semester as a mistake.

The End of the Road

"A bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn." -Helen Keller

          Many times we fail in life because it just wasn't in the cards for us to be successful at a certain time. I am a firm believer in "everything happens for a reason". Life isn't easy and choosing to transfer from St. Andrews was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make. There was no one reason preventing me from falling in love with the university. It is a great place, but not the place for me. It's hard to face the fact that you didn't make the right choice for yourself. All the effort put in, only to be rendered useless. Maybe I wasn't meant to study in Scotland for 4 years. At 18 years old, I understand that I don't have all the answers and I won't always make the right choices. But I won't let a little slip-up ruin my college career. This is not the end for me.

          As we live each day, we have to realize that it isn't the end unless we choose for it to be. We can either let our circumstances beat us down or we can get back up and keep going.