We are all human. We are all fallible. We were built imperfectly perfect. We make mistakes.

Whether you break your mom's favorite vase, burn the meal you've been slaving over all day, or something much more serious does not matter. Things happen and people make mistakes. Sometimes we do things that disappoint the people we love -- believe me, I'm an expert at it. If the people we love truly love us back, they will understand. Loving someone requires you to love them at their best, and love them even more deeply at their worst. Your support is appreciated, not needed, when I am succeeding in life. It is in the times that I am failing and things are crumbling that your support is needed.

My father always says, "It is what it is." We can't turn back time and take back the things we have done or said, so why fret over them? Just like you can't put tooth paste back into its tube, you can't take back the things you say and do. And that's okay. So maybe you hurt some people along the way, and maybe you lose some friendships. Everything in our lives happens for a reason. If someone is unable to forgive you for being human and doing what humans do best, good riddance! It wasn't meant to be.

There is one thing I have come to learn through all of the mistakes I have made: I will never again regret a single one of them. Yes, some of the things I have done were wrong. Yes, I have unintentionally hurt some people I care deeply about and some that I barely know. And yes, I have burnt quite a few bridges. What I see now that I was blind to before is that all of these things happen for a reason. And you know what? I am completely fine with everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen in my life.

Who I am today is not the same person I was even a week ago. I have always known that we learn from our mistakes, but I needed to stop repeating the same mistakes before I could learn anything from them. The woman I have grown to be would not exist had I not lit a few fires and burnt myself along the way. Take me as I am, scars and all, but don't let who I used to be and the things I used to do define me. I am not my mistakes. I am human.