We live in a world that strives to be perfect, thus forcing us to continue this valued idea of perfection. This fact is actually more damaging than we think. This fact brings out this part of all of us that allows ourselves to be swallowed by a past mistake. This mistake can be minor and still cause rippling affects. What people don't see is that this strive for perfection is the mistake, and we are not the sum of our mistakes.

If we lived in a world full of perfection, no one would know how to live and learn from their past. Things happen. if we let those things continue to eat us up, we are letting those mistakes define us. That's one of the worst things to do, to let your mistakes define you as person. Letting these mistakes define us causes us to not allow ourselves to take another risk because we begin to live under the shadow of fear of making that same mistake again. But, things aren't perfect and there will always be parts of your life that do go according to plan.

Your past doesn't dictate your future. What has once happened, happened. Your past mistakes and invisible wounds, and we allow ourselves to constantly pour salt on them every time we dwell on them. Don't let it get in the way of your future endeavors and successes. We all fail and make a mistake sometimes. We've all done things that we aren't proud of, said things that we didn't mean, let ourselves fall for the wrong person, but that doesn't mean we are that past mistake. We can fall down (figuratively and literally), but the important part is not making that fall too big of a deal because all of us has fallen in the past.

The definition of us can't revolve around our past mistake but, how we learned to overcome that mistake. Allow your past mistakes to merely be an experience you overcame, not the person you look at everyday. Our definition of ourselves is what we want to make it, not what other people perceive us as.

Go ahead and take risks and show that you are unafraid of making another mistake. We need these mistakes to truly learn from them and figure out what it is that really makes us happy. Seize every opportunity you have in front of you. Follow the major you really wanted to be in, apply for your dream job, talk to that person you have had a crush on, do the thing that you think will make you happy. No one else can measure your level of happiness but you.

As a great philosopher once said "You are not damaged goods because you've made mistakes in your life." Don't believe you are any less or not worthy of something that has happened to you in the past. We all have the power to make our own decisions and change our courses of life if we truly want to. All it takes it to accept the past and build a new future.

You don't have to forget your past, cause sometimes it's hard to escape that memory. All I'm saying is to forgive yourself and don't let the past be your definition of you.

P.S. The philosopher I above fore mentioned was Taylor Swift. Sorry, had to add her in here somewhere.

P.P.S Thanks to Tenth Avenue North for the title. To know what I'm talking about listen here .