\m/hat might have been.

Growing up I always dreamed of being a longhorn. As a senior in high school, as I was getting ready for college, The University of Texas was the only place I saw myself going and UT was the first college to receive an application from me. Although the many college fairs, the many college visits, and the many lectures about the disadvantages of going to a college so close to home I was set on going there. I was ecstatic! (Maybe as excited as Casey was when she got her first cell phone? http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=529768827247?) Me! Bernaddette! FINALLY going to college! FINALLY getting to be a longhorn! YAY:)

Somehow I ended up here… at good ol’ southwestern.

The beginning of my freshman year in college sucked. Over half of the graduating class from my high school went to UT and reading their facebook statuses about how they loved college made me want to smash my computer over one of my suite mate’s head (yea, I said it)! I was the only one from my school to come to southwestern and the atmosphere here definitely took some getting used to (to say the least).

At the time, my decision to come to Southwestern was something I tremendously regretted.

This was supposed to be me:

(If I would have gone to UT maybe the boy who has been cropped out of this picture would not have also been cropped out of my life?)

Day in and day out I imagined how life would be if I was a longhorn, if classes were big and easy, if I was near all my friends and family, and how my life would be if the events that led me to come to Southwestern would have been different.

Counterfactual thinking is a tendency to imagine what life would be like if certain events or outcomes (that did not happen) would have happened. Neal Roese and Amy Summerville (2005) found that the top three things people tend to regret in life are decisions about education, careers, and romance.

Although I once regretted coming to southwestern, I am now very grateful to have been given the opportunity to get such a great education. Fortunately I no longer regret my decision and I am a proud pirate!

Regret is a heavy burden to carry… I knew that all too well. I once imagined how good it would feel to sing this song and mean it.. and now I can... I love college:)

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Roese, N.J., Summerville, A. (2005). What we regret the most..and why. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 1273-1285.