What I Regret the Most

Amy and I had made a pact since when we were nine years old. We agreed to concentrate on our
education to make sure we each secured a position in one of the best universities in the State. My
goal was to be admitted to Yale University. Amy’s goal was to attend Stamford University. We
both knew what was required of us, immense hard work and dedication. “We have to make sure
that these goals are achieved,” I said, and Amy was in total agreement.
We were both very sharp in school and this made it easy for us to fully concentrate on our
education and nothing else. We buried our heads to school work. As the days went by, we began
to see the results of our hard work. We were performing excellently in all our subjects. My
parents were delighted to know that I was consistently scoring high grades in every examination
that I sat for. “You are making your mother and I very proud,” my dad said. This made me feel
very proud of myself as all I ever wanted was to make my parents happy, and if passing my
exams was the solution, I was ready to dedicate my whole life to studying just to always see
them proud of me. Amy’s parents were equally proud of her. We would meet in the library and
discuss how our parents were thrilled with our success. We were on top of the world.
Despite our success, we did not lose our focus. We continued to work hard in order to pass the
examination that mattered, the final one. As such, we formed a group discussion where we would
meet every Saturday at my place. Our parents were more than happy to let Amy come over for
the group discussion. After all, we were not roaming in the streets and having aimless sleepovers as our peers did. So we read and read some more. It was what we knew how to do best, learn and
pass examinations.
However, Amy and I began to feel left out. We did not have other friends. Our classmates
disliked us as we came off as nerds. Nobody wanted to associate with us. The only time someone
other than Amy spoke to me was when they wanted my help on a particular assignment. We
were never invited to our class mate’s birthday parties or for sleepovers like the rest of the class
were. This broke my heart into pieces. Amy also felt the same way. No one wanted to associate
with us because we had distanced ourselves from our friends. We always spent our time at the
library or home studying. No one considered consistently studying enjoyable other than Amy and
I, and as a result, our classmates and neighbors never wanted to associate with us.
Amy and I did not like the feeling of being left out. It was not part of the pact we made when we
were nine years old. We had every intention of making our future brighter, but we never
understood the adverse effects it would impact our lives. By dedicating our lives to studies, we
had unintentionally locked out our friends from associating with us, and as such, we ended up
not having a social life. We had to do something and we had to do it very fast.
Consequently, we decided to associate more with our classmates and other friends from home.
We agreed to make more friends and associate more with them. Making friends was not as easy
as everyone thought that we were weird. However, despite the challenges, we managed to make
friends with whom we would share our high school memories.
I regret having wasted most of my childhood studying and not making friends. We ought to have
struck a balance between our studies and our social life. If I had a chance to travel back in time, I
would make sure that I made more friends and hang out with them more often.

Amy and I later realized that we could still work hard in school and find time to associate with
our friends. We started going for picnics with my friends. For instance, on 4 th July, my friends
and I set out to go on a girly picnic. My mother helped me pack my picnic basket, and after the
morning preparations, I was ready to have a good time with my friends. We rode our bicycles to
the nearest river. We began to swim, and Amy managed to catch a small catfish, but we let it go.
The swimming made us hungry, and we sat down to have some lunch. We had so much fun and
promised each other that we will always be friends. Our grades have not being affected in any
way by our new friends. Amy and I still take our studies seriously, and we always work hard and
pass our exams as before.