When Life Gives You The Chance To Improve, Fucking Take It

The part of the brain responsible for rational thinking does not get fully developed until we reach the age of 25. Complex as it may seem, it’s one of the basics of the human condition. This is why we are prone to make irrational decisions, take miscalculated risks, and act on uninformed choices when we’re in our teens. We just jump right into a getaway car in the middle of the night, speed up to 100 miles per hour until we hit a brick wall, and explode with adrenaline. We make foolish choices, we are forgiven, and then we move on like nothing’s happened.

Making mistakes is part of our formative years. Many would argue it’s by making mistakes that we get to learn how to deal with things effectively moving forward. Our ancestors learned touching fire would burn the skin. Society learned too much power exercised by the ruling class would result in revolution at best and anarchy at worst. The maritime industry was forever changed learning from the mistakes committed in the Titanic disaster. More importantly, humanity learned history would repeat itself if we continued to make the same mistakes in the future.

The small actions we make are a microcosm of a bigger picture, of the bigger role we play in the circle of life. This is why we constantly evolve and change, swayed by the invisible forces of the universe. The past mistakes are told through stories in history books for us to learn the mistakes of others, to take a leaf from their lives and not commit the same mistakes they did.

But as humans, we are prone to making mistakes and miscalculated judgements. We are governed both by our rational and emotional minds. We make mistakes, and that is fine. Our mistakes are part of the narrative, which makes up the whole tapestry of guidelines for those who will come after us.

The only mistake we ought not make, next to fallacy, is not learning from those mistakes. Let me repeat it for those at the back: Making mistakes is fine. And let me add this: We have to take responsibility and accountability for our actions.

Life is a mixtape of highs and lows; the highs are where we reap the fruits of our labor and our good choices, whereas our lows are the chapters where we create our mistakes. Our denouement is how we bounce back, because life offers you chances to improve. Other people may not offer you the room to grow, but life will. And when it does, fucking take the chance.

Maybe there will always be a degree of argument to make against the psychology in the development of the human brain. Maybe it’s more than psychology. Maybe we will continue to make irrational decisions, take miscalculated risks, and act on uninformed choices even beyond the age of 25. And maybe that’s okay, because no matter what we do, we are all flawed anyway. But hey, when life serves you lemons, learn how to make lemonade.