This is always one of my favorite times of year: the trees lose their leaves, the air is so brisk and it’s sweater weather. As October begins to come to a close everything seems a little more barren; yet. there is that aspect of this time of year that makes you feel like you never want it to go away. I don’t know what it is exactly, but this feeling of joy comes with the new holiday seasons approaching. Halloween seems to herald in this new feeling once and for all. It almost makes my breath catch due to the fact that this is the most beautiful time of year.

I love spring; it has a je ne sais quoi that just awakens those who had been resting during the winter slumber. I love summer; it is so refreshing and it warms the soul while preparing you for the next months to come. I don’t necessarily love winter and fall more than I love spring and summer, it is rather the transition from fall to winter that makes my heart leap for joy.

Changes frighten some people, but sometimes change can be invigorating and cause peoples’ lives to be revolutionized by leaps and bounds. As I begin to start a new phase of the year, I begin to look back on all of the events in the past year.

Did I do everything? As I speculate about the past year, I begin to hyperventilate. What opportunities did I miss; did I take every chance I could get? Starting at the beginning and working my way to where I am now, I begin to see subtle yet significant opportunities that have shaped my year. I realize that I have found my self in several situations in the past year that have redefined what I stand for and what I believe to be the most important aspects of my life.

A monumental moment in this past year was HOBY. The Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Conference is a leadership conference where one high school sophomore from every school in the state is able to go and spend four days meeting other students and learning important leadership skills, including service work. The honor of being chosen to attend this seminar could not have been a greater honor for me. Going into the conference, I chose to not let anything or anyone dictate how I was going to interact. All of the students are broken up into what come to be known as “HOBY Families;” they are differentiated by a letter and a shirt color. My letter was “P” and my shirt color was light blue. Some might assume that being thrown haphazardly into a group of complete strangers would be awkward and unnerving, but for the ten of us in the “P” group we were immediate friends. You know how there are those people who just bring out the absolute quirky best in you? These people did that for me; they showed me that nothing should ever inhibit your true spirit. On top of gaining nine fabulous friends, I learned more about myself as a leader which I have been able to bring back to my high school to attempt to make it a better environment by implementing some of these valuable skills I obtained.

Although HOBY was only four days in a 365 day year, I find myself reminiscing on the events of HOBY and pondering the effect that they have had on not only my year, but on my personality and life as a whole. As I think back on the craziness that has occurred in the past year, I begin to wonder: what changed me, what got me here today? As I look back, I realize that going into this season of thanksgiving and joy I have had a multitude of moments and opportunities. I would not take back any moment in the year, especially HOBY, because this year I have had a lot to be thankful for.

So I encourage you, don’t let regret rule your life. Choose to make a different choice in the future, because everything shapes us into the person we are and living with regret only prohibits you being the very best you, you can be.