Making mistakes is not only part of growing up, but part of life in general. Even well into your golden years, you are still bound to screw some things up here and there, or just make unwise choices. The key is to learn from those mistakes, give yourself credit for the things you did right, and move on.
Recently in an /r/askreddit thread, people responded to the question "What mistake did you NOT make as a teenager?" and people shared their own personal experiences of things they chose not to do as well as mistakes they witnessed friends and classmates make.
1
I'm the first woman in my family to beat teen pregnancy -AdmirableCycle
2
I never joined a street gang. I was in the rare percentage of kids from my neighborhood -LonelyStroker9
3
Despite drinking a LOT, I did not drink and drive -kimtenisqueen
4
Sending nudes. found out the boys in our school had a shared email they all had the password to where they passed around all of the nudes they got. found out two of the guys i talked to who asked me for them were a part of that group. so glad i never took nudes or sent them -mondayeyess
5
Not dropping out after failing 10th grade. Scares me to think what path I might have taken if I had given up on myself in the long run -JohnnyTsnumai
6
Joining in on the dumb stunts my friends were doing. One of them got hurt pretty bad at school one day -icupfunnycolors3
7
Not taking advantage of an extremely drunk girl at a party. So glad I chose to be a decent person in that situation -PirahanPirate
8
Avoided a murderous maniac. I was asked out. I said no. He went on to r**e and murder two teenage girls that same weekend -Necessary_Future
9
Lame, but playing football past freshman year. Every now and then, I still get dizzy spells from an undiagnosed concussion from that year. Who knows what would have happened if I continued -ohsnapzbrah
10
Catching an STD, It wasn't like I was overly cautious... we'll chalk it up to a lack of uh.. activity -M'ladyPillow33
11
Short of alcohol and meth, I decided not to do nicotine. I still regard that as a no brainer. It just seemed so unnecessary -Megalocerus
12
Get my GF pregnant. I'm not ready for kids now (10 years later) so I can't imagine what a nightmare that would have been -BucketoTacos
13
Didn't get any tattoos either from a shady shop or "DIY". Good things my parents would have flipped -MrMoMosa_Boi
14
Never slept with any of my teachers. A fellow classmate wasn't so lucky and it ended up ruining multiple lives -Shay_The_Mouse5
15
Never got arrested or cited for underage drinking -BrodyBob411
16
Signing my name on a high interest 100k+ student loan to get a degree in a oversaturated low paying career -Zestyclosecup8451
17
Using a vape. E-cigarettes were just getting popular as a drug in their own right instead of just a tool to quit smoking when I was in senior year, and at the time were still regarded as safe and non-habit forming by many. It didn't take long for that to turn out to be false - Independent_Clown470
18
All my friends thought it'd be funny to drink a bit and the go smash our Spanish teachers mailbox in my buddy's van. I thought it was stupid, so I didn't hang out that night. They got caught, destroyed a part of my buddy's van, and all got felony charges. Stupid -GreekSheik
19
Getting angry and chasing a crowd of people with a wheelbarrow -yupfoshow
