My Biggest Regret: What I Wish I'd Done Differently at Vancouver Island University

As I have started to get used to fact that I am a student again over these first couple of the weeks of the school year, as well as with young people across the world now starting to settle into their new cities if they decided to leave home to pursue their education, I can't help but reflect on my own experience and what I wish I had done differently.

In September 2021, I moved to Nanaimo, BC to attend Vancouver Island University and was a student there until April of 2023, when I concluded the two year diploma Sports & Recreation Management diploma program. Leaving home should be both an exciting and scary time for people but typically, those nervous feeling tend to go away as you meet people and get comfortable in your new surroundings. However, in my case, instead of embracing this exciting time, I found myself a lot of the time isolating myself, counting down the days until I could go home, and just going home in general any chance I could get.

Looking back now, and as I see many of my high school class finishing their post-secondary journeys, I can't help but feel a bit jealous or envious of all the friendships and connections they've seemed to have made in our post high school days, while I have honestly just tried to avoid being uncomfortable, which has led to me not really having any of these same experiences or new relationships because I was (and at times still am) so stubborn or stuck in my ways.

I honestly don't know why I am writing this, maybe it's just a way for me to share these feelings. While I’ve always said that going to Nanaimo was one of the best things for me as it gave me the chance to experience living on my own and being independent in ways some of my friends haven’t yet, I know for a fact that I didn’t take full advantage of the opportunity I had. And that is simply the biggest regret of my life so far. It’s not getting myself kicked off hockey teams, it’s not letting my weight reach nearly 200 pounds at 17 years old, and it’s not overreacting to many situations that have made myself look like a crazy person or hot head.

My biggest regret is that I was so focused on going home that I shut myself off from the possibility of getting comfortable around new people and building new connections that I could have had today.

If you’re reading this and have just moved away from home or can relate to a situation like that one I was in, I’m telling you, get out of your dorm and get to know people. At the end of the day, that’s what matters the most, the memories you create and the relationships you build along the way. Trust me, you don’t want to have that feeling of regret, because truthfully, sometimes I wonder if all I ever came back with from Nanaimo was a piece of paper. And although I know that’s not the case, I can’t help but think about how much better my experience away from home could have been if I’d done things a little differently.