Lessons Learned

Hey,
So, in 2 and a half months, I am about to embark on a new adventure.. Well, technically an old one, but it's just as exciting as if it were new! I am entering (FINALLY) my fourth year of university!! That's right, in 10 months I will be a university graduate!! The proud owner of a $60,000 piece of paper!! YES SIR!! Big accomplishments!! :)
Sometimes, though, I wonder why I ever took so long to get it in the first place. I tend to imagine, "What would happen if I had stayed in school when I was 19??"
Here's how I figure it would have gone down.

Bad Things I Could Have Avoided:
I would have been employed in the summer of 2009, I would have not been as hurt as I was that summer.
I wouldn't have gone into the military and fractured my hip.
I wouldn't have met someone and end up breaking his heart.
I would be graduated and started a career by now.

Good Things I'm Glad I Didn't:
I never would have learned important lessons that I needed to learn about myself and people.
I would never have cultivated the current relationship I have with my father.
I wouldn't have gone into the military and made some outstanding lifelong friends.
I wouldn't have come back to school with a fiery passion to get my degree.
If I didn't come back to school, I wouldn't have started dating my awesome boyfriend.

And this is just the PG stuff that I feel comfortable publishing on the internet, there are many other horrible and many other terrific things that could or could not have happened if I would have come back to school at 19 instead of staying out until I was 22.

I feel as though life is full of surprises, what starts out as regret seems to, more often than not, turn into gratitude. I am so grateful for my sorry attempts at becoming an adult, because I believe that through those mistakes, I ended up growing up much more than I originally anticipated without even trying. I feel like I am more mature, much wiser, and a little more settled in who I am than I could have ever been had I not taken the two years off.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everybody. Thank you to my coworkers, my bosses, my acquaintances, close friends, frenemies, people who stabbed me in the back, and people who talked $h!t about me all through Basic. Thank you, especially, to those who loved me through it all. You will never know how incredibly and truly grateful I am for you.

Mel