Something that I've come to discover not only during my time in college but also throughout my entire life is that whether or not you want to face responsibility, your choices are your own and can never be taken back.
Mistakes are both temporary and fixable!
It sounds silly, sure, due to how often people say it, but you really are faced with choices that require serious thinking in life, and all too often, we find ourselves choosing the wrong path. What is even more interesting is that even after we've done wrong and crossed a line, we find ourselves easily susceptible to making the same mistake in future endeavors. Oftentimes, it is done subconsciously, and you only realize the pattern you've fallen into when it is far too late. Unfortunate? Certainly, but unavoidable? Not even close.
Take relationships, for example. You can probably recall many of your past experiences with a significant other or crush, whether the memory is positive or negative, as well as the mistakes you may have made with them. You might pursue a relationship with a girl but end up turning her away and trying to figure out what went wrong, but even when you do understand your error, you simply end up doing it again with another girl and afterward wonder why.
What makes you who you are?
It's a very human mindset that is difficult to avoid, but the answer lies within the very subject of this article: soul searching. Before you can truly understand how to better communicate with the people walking around you, you need to understand yourself. What is your purpose? What is your personality? What traits do you admire in other people, and how would you like others to perceive you?
In my experience, you could spend hours upon hours just thinking, and all that you would find is that you don't know yourself nearly as well as you thought you did. This is normal, and understanding that we are flawed beings incapable of doing the right thing all the time is a key factor in self-reflection. The sooner you realize that mistakes are going to happen despite your best efforts, the sooner you can embrace who you truly are and who you strive to be.
If you can't come to terms with your own personality, how can you ask anyone else to?
Evaluate yourself before letting others judge you.
As my advice to you, I recommend taking the time to sit down with yourself and reflect on your past decisions. Determine how you could have done better in negative situations while also celebrating decisions you made that positively affected others. After all, when we're taking advantage of our strengths while keeping our weaknesses in check, there is little we can't accomplish. It all comes down to your mindset. It all comes down to how much YOU want to improve.
If you spend too much time focusing on the mistakes you're afraid you will make again, you may find yourself missing out on some great new experiences. Everybody goes through this, and it's okay to talk about it. There's nothing wrong with taking the time to become acquainted with yourself, and you might just find out something new about yourself that you never would have anticipated. Just keep one thing in mind: you can never undo the mistakes you make. However, if you're serious about searching deep within yourself and communicating with others, you will come to find that your blunders may sometimes describe you, but they will never define you.
