The life lesson that stood out to me was lesson 19: Try to live in the present. The lesson is basically about not living in the past or in the future. Never dwell on the things that could have been or things you cannot change. Also, to not spend so much time stressing about things years from now because no one can fortell how events are to turn out until they come. Then, sometimes it turns out the things you spent dreading or trying to prevent could end up never happening or the downfall you could end up making things worst than what they could have been.
I relate to this lesson so much because I do dwell in the past and try to prevent things in the future that I have no control over. Life lesson number 17: Choose your friends carefully. Choosing who my friends were is one thing from my past I tend to harp on alot. I always say to myself if I hadn't choosen to follow the crowd would I be better off nowadays, but the thing is nothing is wrong with my life right now. I learned from my mistakes and I have moved on/ grown from them. I just have a hard time dealing with the what if aspect of could I have had more opprotunities for me if I would have choosen to lead my own path instead of following others. My mom has continually told me that there are times you have to fall, but to only get back up as a stronger and more knowledgeable person.
The last thing I have a hard time with is spending too much time in the future. I consistently worry that if I do not try to fix my future problems now that they will only get worst. The sad part is I am only harming myself. I went to NOVA before coming to GMU. I remember my second semester at NOVA I ended up having a mental breakdown because I was so scared and stressed out, I was not going to have the grades or a way to pay for school. I would also stress about that if I took out all these loans I would be buried alive for the rest of my life with these loans and I could not live with that. I felt loans would destroy my future and I would be poor the rest of my life, etc. It took until probably the last month of my last semester at NOVA to try and not worry so much about how my loans would affect me later on in life and just worry about the now aspect of life. This is my second semester here at GMU and so far the loans that I have taken out have not affected my way of living in any way. Having spoken with people about loans, I have started paying on my loans now instead of waiting until I have graduated to pay them off. I am not going to lie and say that I do not stress anymore; from time to time I do stress over various things in my past and in my future, but it is no where nearly as bad as I used to be.
