Living with Regrets by bea

Living with Regrets by bea - August 2025 Scholarship Essay

My biggest aspiration for this school year is to learn how to live with no regrets. I regret a lot of decisions I made in high school, and unfortunately, I can’t go back in time and make better choices. Having to live with the consequences to my actions made my mental health worse throughout high school, making me spiral into depression, leading to more bad choices. I got to the point where I couldn’t make myself care about anything in my life and every day my mental state became worse and worse. I abandoned my school work, struggled in my sport, and lost all interest in any hobbies I had. This summer I sat with my emotions. I’ve always been a person who bottled up my feelings in fear of judgement and vulnerability. Admitting to myself that I was struggling was one of the hardest things to do, but it was also my first step towards recovery. Doing this led me to realize that I’m the only person who can take initiative and do something to make my life brighter again. I forced myself to watch new shows, get new hobbies and socialize with friends. While this helped a little, I knew the only way to truly get myself out of the deep hole I was in was to face my regrets. I made myself a list of every bad decision I could think of just to put things in perspective for me. Sitting down and writing everything made me wonder why I was so hard on myself because none of my decisions were genuinely “bad” or derailed my life in any major way. Regretting my past choices is still something that I struggle with today, but every day I get better at regulating my emotions and reminding myself that I can only change the future, not the past. Sometimes when you make decisions in a split second, you may not always end up going with the best one, and that’s okay. Mistakes are normal.