Even bad experiences have good outcomes

As a child and as a teenager I have gone through many experiences that have shaped the person I am today. However, if I had to describe my best quality it would be that I utterly love and value my family. Because of this, I believe my first relationship and my parent’s involvement in it has been the experience that has mostly affected me as an individual. When I was fifteen years old, I met a guy names Ricardo who was six yeard older than me. Since the beginning, my parents told me that I was not to date him or even talk to him. I ignored my parents and continued to talk to him. A couple of months later we began to date. For a year and a half, I constantly wrote my parents letters asking for their approval. After almost two years, my mother finally let me date him but under her own rules. During those two years, I thought that was all I wanted. I assumed that if my parents approved my relationship with him I was going to be the happiest person in the world. However, after two months of dating him under my mother’s rules, I realized I was still feeling the same way. I was still feeling lonely and empty. I realized this feeling of loneliness and confusion was a result of my parent’s divorce and everything I had gone through during their divorce. I felt awful because I had treated my parents and my sister the wrong way for almost two years. I frequently blamed them for my unhappiness. I also isolated myself from my family and my friends in order to keep my relationship with Ricardo. Although I believe I acted the wrong way, I would not change this experience. This experience taught me to value my family, to think twice and analyze each and every situation, and that life will give you time for everything but that one has to wait for that time to come rather than trying to live that moment ahead of time like I tried to do. This experience taught me that no matter what happens, my family is the only one that is going to be there for me at all times. After everything I did, after all the times I lied to my family, they forgave me. To me, my family is everything I have of great value. I am here today because of them and everything I do, I do for them.