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Asked by Emmit Metcalf on 14 Feb 2022.
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Melissa Hess answered on 14 Feb 2022: last edited 14 Feb 2022 7:58 pm
I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but most of them I don’t regret because I also learned a lot through them. But if I had to give advice to someone based on my own mistakes, going to a private college instead of a state college for undergrad wasn’t the best idea. There were some benefits, but after going to Penn State for grad school, I would tell people to seriously consider state colleges.. My other piece of advice would be try not to be afraid of making those big mistakes, because you really do learn a lot from them, and that’s how you grow as a person.
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Phu Phan answered on 14 Feb 2022:
It’s a great question Emmit! I haven’t had my worst life decision yet, but I do have a failure that set up success later. In my first two years of college, I didn’t do well and wasted the opportunity to study. After being miserable and aimless, it made me realize that I come to college to learn about my interest, not study what other people told me. This procrastination/ failure helps me to pursue what my interest is in and how to stop following the “trend”. After I realize this, I continue to grow my interest in learning chemistry that later I land my dream job.
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Lindsey Anderson answered on 14 Feb 2022:
This is an interesting question.
I never think of life as a series of decisions (made for the worst or the best outcome), more like hypothesis driven learning experiences 🙂 Secret is no one ever really knows what they are doing 99% of the time, we fake it til we make it and we learn from our mistakes.
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Leah Sutton answered on 14 Feb 2022:
I wish I would have stayed more focused on the future and not so much on the present during high school. While friendships and social connections are very important to have and build I spent too much time and energy on those aspects and not enough on building myself to my full potential in all aspects. If I could go back I would spend more time volunteering in my community, being involved in clubs/activities that interest me, and focus more on my learning to grow into the kind of adult I admired.
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Stefanie Fields answered on 15 Feb 2022:
This is a hard one! I can’t really pin point a “worst life decision”. I think that most “mistakes” mold you, and teach you a lesson. If you aren’t learning more from your failures, compared to your successes then you need to re-evaluate. BUT the one rule I follow is “trust your gut”. As long as you listen to your “gut instinct”, you’ll tend to be happy with your decisions.
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Ryan Holmes answered on 16 Feb 2022:
Definitely, leaving graduate school without acquiring a degree. I am on the road to fixing that problem now! I have made plenty of mistakes but I have made learning opportunities of all of them. It is important to grow and learn from mistakes otherwise they are likely to happen again.
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Lauren Haygood answered on 17 Feb 2022:
One thing I almost viewed as a worst life decision was continuing with general chemistry my first semester of undergrad even though I was failing the class. No matter how long I studied or how many office hours I went to, I still didn’t do well on the tests, and unfortunately, the test scores were what determined our grades. I opted to stay in the class anyway, yet, I still failed the class. On top of this, we were told by our professor to drop our degree if it consisted of chemistry (mine did). Luckily, my undergraduate advisor at the time described my situation as a hiccup, and told me everyone hiccups, it’s what you do about the hiccup that determines the outcome. So, I retook the class, earned an A, and now do research that is heavily chemistry based, and lead workshops for students talking about failure.
When I was in the thick of that chemistry class, I did think I made the worst life decision. However, looking back, it was the best decision, and has enabled me to be a much more effective mentor and scientist.
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Chiara Amato answered on 18 Feb 2022:
Wow, this is a very deep question! Thanks for asking it, Emmit. It’s hard to answer but I’ll try my best. I stand by all the choices I made in my life because, for better or for worse, they made me the person that I am today. I learn to celebrate my successes and to learn from my mistakes. I like to think that no matter the outcome, the decisions that I made were the best for me at the moment. However, if I could go back in the past, I would tell a younger me, to believe more in myself, and to have a little bit more fun.
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