Be open to new things by Niranjana

Be open to new things by Niranjana - July 2025 Scholarship Essay

There are many regrets I have in my lifetime, but each one has made me into who I am today. So instead of suggesting myself to take measure to prevent those regrets, I would encourage myself to be looser and experiment with life. Don’t restrict yourself to ideals and wanting to only succeed, I could’ve learnt so much more if I hadn’t been so focused on one goal. There may path to reach a destination and when we take the clearest one, we will not come to face with challenges that force us to grow.

I remember being a reckless and carefree kids, and sure that not the exact characteristics I want to carry out to adulthood, but to an extent I wish a small part of those qualities carried on to my teenage years. I do not have any special memories of my teenage years which hits different knowing how many expectations I had for being a teenager. It colors these years as grey and boring when I could’ve experimented all that I like and find the ideals I want to pursue with enthusiasm and creativity.

Being a teenager is when we start exploring all sorts of things and try everything to see what suits us. It is also the time we figure out how we feel about certain stuff and learn clearly about our feelings and idea of what kind of future we want. We gain full consciousness and build our moralities and beliefs that creates us as individuals. However, it's also the most influential period of our lives, our environment helps us define who we are but only if we let it and take the chance to see where it leads us.

Being confined under one category and too scared to lean out to even dab into a different possibility can also lead to be narrow minded. I had experienced this and being narrow minded can cause one to be defensive, sensitive, and closed off to other opinions. I had thought life was point A to point B and that everyone followed ideals like mine. I had come to realize that is not true and even though I can’t make up for the lost time I am taking the advice that I would’ve told myself back then and applying it now. The quality of being open minded is indeed useful and opens you to new possibilities and helps me realize what I should’ve done and help those who are still in the stage of confusion and growing and give them this advice of not taking things too seriously.

Though like everything is not his world, this could cause negative effects if it is done in an extreme manner. That is why balance is important and is another add on of advice I would give to my past self. Try everything with. Balance and know when something too much is harmful for you.
I know we can’t change the past, but we can mold our future with the lessons we learned from the past. Every essence of time, ever period, every minute, second and hour, contributes to who we are today and we can make ourselves into better people with the future.