MEET VICTOR

Fear regret more than failure.

As the school year has been coming to a close, the one question I’ve been constantly asked is “what has been your biggest regret in college?” When I was first asked this question, a lot of different thoughts started popping up in my head like “why didn’t I study more for that last test?” or “I should not have stayed up so late last night,” but honestly, it was pretty hard for me to think of something over these last four years that stuck out to me as my “biggest regret.” Everything that I thought of resulted in a short-term disappointment and was ultimately pretty inconsequential when I think about my entire time here at UW.

Regret is a feeling of sadness or disappointment over something that has happened or been done. I think that it has been difficult for me to come up with a response to the question because I truly believe that without all of the experiences I have been through—the successes and the failures—I would not have learned the things that I have, grown in the ways that I have, and be at this stage of my life that God has led me to. Personally, I believe that the feeling of regret stems from two different but interconnected situations: the failure to do something and the unwillingness to learn from failure.

I definitely don’t even have all of this figured out for myself yet, but I guess here is the advice I have for you all: Don’t live in fear of failure and seek discomfort. In your faith, Jesus never said that following Him would be easy. God places us through times of hardship so that we would trust in Him and press into Him more (check out James 1:1-13!!). In your community, seek to love on one another and build genuine relationships. Be real with each other and have the hard conversations. And in your current position as a college student/soon to be graduate, do not constrain yourself to society’s timetable for “success” and trust in God’s timetable. Take the time to figure out the things you are truly passionate about and GO FOR IT.