Judgment is a negative frequency, provided it smacks of jealousy.

There are a lot of things that we learn when we grow up. It starts out with learning how to walk and talk. Then we move on to bigger things. We learn how to add and subtract. We learn how to read and write. Pretty soon that adding and subtracting turns into multiplying and dividing. Next thing you know after that we are sitting in calculus class trying to figure out very complex equations.

My point is the human brain is always growing and learning. As we grow up, our interests change. We grow as humans because we are learning and we learn in many different ways. Sometimes we learn in school and sometimes we learn by the mistakes that we make in life. Mistakes are a part of living, but they are also a beautiful part of life. If you don’t make mistakes, you will never learn.

Think back on a time where you may have said something or did something that may have been ignorant, mean, or just weird. Think about the time that you said or did something that if you could go back you would never do again. Every single one of us has those moments. Those moments are moments that we try to bury into the back of our brains and forget that they ever happened, but sometimes it is good to look back because you can see how far you’ve come.

Every person on this earth has done or said something that they regret. In fact, every person on this earth has done or said multiple things that they regret and are not too proud of. This is why it is important not to define people based on the decisions that they have made in the past but on the person that they are now.

I knew a lot of people from high school who seemed as if they were going nowhere in life. However, when they went to college, it was as if something changed. They grew as people. They were no longer the same person that they used to be. They were now smarter, more intelligent and actually had opinions about the world. I could go back to some of the stupid decisions that they made in high school, and judge them for that, but at the same time, they could do the same to me.

If you are the type of person who never forgets what someone has done in the past, you need to look yourself in the mirror and think about all the things you have done too. Why are you the one bringing up somebody’s past? Is it to make you feel better about yourself? And to those of you who are being judged for your past mistakes, you made them. You can’t change them now. You are above the criticism, though. People who try to nail you on what you’ve done in the past are just trying to bring you down, stay up. Own it. “Yes, I did that and it was a bad decision. I’m sorry.” As long as you have learned from those mistakes, they do not define you anymore. No one on this earth is perfect. The most important thing at the end of the day is that you are happy with the person that you are and you never stop learning. Also, if people want to live inside of your past, leave them there, it’s where they belong.