I am generally a person who has too much fun making mistakes to make them 'just' a few times..haha So, the list of goofs is long but I'm going to try and pick the top 2 and also just put in a word about them..
1)Bankruptcy and Debt: I make it sound worse than it probably was but then there was this period when I did go broke - completely broke. Suddenly, I had no money for bills and I had no idea where this even came from?
It was a shocker to me as I had enough money thanks to a scholarship that paid for all expenses. And it then occurred that I had been living a lifestyle that was way above my means. After I'd started working, I was in this rather warped sense of reality - too many cab rides, too much eating out etc. At any rate, I was spending a lot more than I earned. Now, as I had been very proud of the fact that I did not have to take money from home for my studies, I had to rely on friends to bail me out on an immediate note, and they did. It was a big big hit to my own understanding of myself in terms of expenses and finances. It took more about 1 and a half year to get myself back to complete financial comfort but I've learnt a few lessons that I will take forward with me for a long long time..
Learning: Money to spend = Money Earned - Basic expenses - Savings. I haven't even come to a point where there are savings I can talk about but it is a very simple rule that is easy to flout.. And once flouted, takes enormous discipline to get back. It's a lesson I'm thankful for - it was my Personal Financial Management 101 course..
2)Screwing up health: There came a period after my G9 when a whole bunch of people I knew just fell sick. These were generally symptoms of a larger problem - there was a lot of illness flying around accumulated due to bad eating habits primarily, resulting in a loss of health. I was seemingly too busy to worry about food and the result was a bad gastric problem that lasted for three rather painful weeks.
The worst part was that it was self inflicted.
Learning: 'Food first' is a motto I've tried to stick with.. I generally don’t mind walking into a meeting a few minutes late and paying late fee if it means grabbing the all important bite. A lot of things go wrong without food in our system.. And it's just not worth the risk.
3)Goofs in itself - a learning: These 2 big goofs on the finance and health fronts changed a lot. Firstly, I became very concerned about saving to the point that I cringe when I have to spend 20 cents to buy a new take away box. I prefer washing old ones and carrying them to the canteen myself.
With health, I was already very concerned about my staying fit. This just went up to a whole new level in terms of what I ate. It's come to a point where I have consequences if I don't have a full vegetable dish and a fruit or fruits every day. (Again, more on that when I write about $5 discipline system).
I'm thankful I screwed up with these things when I did because it becomes tougher to learn these lessons and rectify this as we grow older. I wouldn't recommend these to anybody. So, if you are a university kid who is going through the normal drill of an unhealthy life, then I think you've seen enough evidence of the things that can happen. It's amazing how even the small things can come back and bite us..
When I was in school, I was once playing badminton on a wooden court with no shoes when my PT Teacher came up to me and asked me to stop. When I told him I'm only playing for a 'short while' and nothing would happen, he just smiled and said - 'You'll only feel the effects when you are 40!' ..
It's the small things that make a difference. And if the effects of wearing the wrong footwear are so bad, we can only imagine how bad it would be with the wrong food. And as far as money is concerned, I think we've seen what spending over our means and living on credit can do to the world.. :)
And again, while I do hope that none of you ever have to make these mistakes to learn, if they do happen.. we always have the choice to grown into individuals who are better for it than not..
As Rafiki - the wise baboon in Lion King puts it - 'You can either run from it.. or learn from it'
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13 days to go..
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