"Wallowing in regret only gets you more regret, more loss."

After auditioning at Juilliard for theater and not making it when I was 17, I was crushed. There were several other factors that played into this, but I also ended up quitting dancing, which I loved and had done for 7-8 years. After this shit storm of things forcing me to feel inadequate in the things I loved doing most. To someone else, it may have seemed weak to get so upset over those two things, but in my world, getting the audition at Juilliard was an equivalent to heaven to me and dancing was the one thing that set me apart and made me feel accomplished... invincible, even.

I graduated high school that year and went to VCU, and chose to study mass comm and hadn't acted since. I regret it to this day, because I didn't give it my all either. I settled.

Looking back (hindsight is 20/20) I feel like I would have done better, I would have put more effort into my acting and dancing and I would not have given up after not getting a Juilliard callback. However, now, I see it as a change, since I can't go back. I like to look at it as "I've found new passions" and not just given up on old ones.

Loved this post. Thank you for helping me reflect on these things. Regret is really difficult to deal with. But, you live & learn!