Few Regrets

I try sometimes to realize my regrets. So often I find that I cannot define them.


How interesting it is to see how one turns the horrible into good. It's that when you are placed into a situation that you do not know how to handle, you grow.



Once you've delt with a problem you can move on to more advanced problems. That I believe is the definition of learning...to grow more knowledgable and to mature.



I do have some regrets in my life, true. However, even looking over this past year I do not have many regrets.



One of the reasons I do not have many regrets is that I have founds ways to overcome the pain and suffering and/or discontentment. Through trial and error I and others around me have created new solutions that I believe are better than what would have been otherwise. I've also become a stronger person.

Regrets vs. non regrets

I have few problems differentiating.

Sometimes adults do not understand that I do not see particular decision I made as a regret when perhaps they do.



I'm only seventeen but that doesn't make me an idiot.

I accept that I do not have as much life experience as someone who is 40 but that shouldn't mean I can't begin to make decisions for myself. This argument is usually met by one of the following:

1. Take care of yourself and you can make your own decisions. Be grateful for the people providing for you.
2. Freedom comes with responsibility.
3. As your parents it is our responsibility to see to it that you make it to adulthood alive. Do what you want when you're 18.
4. As your parents we are just trying to do what we think is right.

I won't write these arguments off as nonsense.

I admit if I went off into the world on my own tomorrow it would be a struggle.

However, I am making good progress towards becoming independent.

• I devote time to my schoolwork so that I may pursue a higher degree someday.
• My busy schedule requires planning and learning to balance time.
• Finances are not completely foreign to me thanks to my small savings account and observing my parents balancing the check book.
• I've made the critial connection: credit cards are bad.
• Yes I can cook a few meals and definetly follow a reciepe.
• I've been washing laundry for years.
• I can load and unload a dishwasher, vaccum the carpet, sweep the floor and clean the bathrooms.
• I'm in the process of acquiring a license to drive.
• Ballet has taught me dicipline and respect
• Church has taught me tolerance
• School has taught me acceptance
• Friends have taught me diversity
• Babysitting has taught me how to act professional

To say I'm ready to move out would be a gross overstatement. I'm not an adult and I do need my parents. True. I'm sure it will take a few more years for me to be completely ready to face the world but I know this: I am not stupid.

I know that because of my age I am looked down upon by many adults. That isn't fair in the least.

Why?

I don't mean to sound cocky but I am more intelligent than many of the adults in this world.

Respect your elders

Respect is earned by age, not maturity. Why? I sincerely hope my generation matures as they age but I know for a fact not all of them will. Should they still recieve the same rights and respect as the ones that do? I don't think so.



People should be judged by their actual maturity and ability to make decisions.

Maturity totally depends on the person. Please please please don't group teens into one big messy pile. Some of us are really different, believe me.



Adults are the same way. Some are amazing people who haven't gotten as much as a speeding ticket and then on the other end of the spectrum you have drug dealers, sociopaths and child abusers.

Despite the fact that many people percieve me as too immature to make adult decisions, I'm not afraid to admit I do from time to time. And because they are mature decisions, I make all attempts to handle them in a mature way. I'm not saying I'm perfect by any means but who is? Not the sociopath for sure.

However I do not let the world's precieved notions of my maturity rule my life. Sorry. I have a mind of my own. If acting normal is a sin, I'm sorry. I make what adults have termed 'mature' decisions.

What I find curious is when people expect me to regret an adult decision because of the outcome.

Now this may not be the case for all teenagers in my position, however, I think through all my major decisions very carefully. I calculate the different senarios and walk in to the situation being very knowledgable. I can never plead ignorance.



So with that in mind, why would I have any regrets? If something negative happened that I knew was a possibility from the start would I still regret the decision? Anything is possible but most of the time the answer is no.



Why? Because I'm being a mature person something which appearently I'm not supposed to be able to do.



So really, I don't have any regrets. There is one decision I made that I thought I was doing the right thing and had a lot of adults encourage me but turned out to be the worst decision I ever made. I look forward to the day I recover from that.



That is honestly the only the recent, major decision I've made that I regret. I'm more likely to regret someone else's decision than my own.



I'm not going to lie and say I'm this amazing mature person all the time. I'm not going to say I don't act like a teenager. I'm a very moderate person attempting to be a 'good' person while having my own 'rebellion' and doing stuff 'just for the heck of it' every once and a while.

But I think I'm underestimated a great deal of the time. Adults need to stop worrying about me and start trusting me. I don't have many regrets but I've lived plenty.