This is my final draft for my paper and I'm very pleased with it! :)

Riley O’Laughlin
Professor Kelly Anthony
English 101
21 February 2014

                                                                        Mistakes
         Throughout life everyone makes mistakes, no matter how experienced you are in something you’re still making error in your life. Paulo Coelho states this perfectly, “When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way.” I believe with all my heart that mistakes make you the person you are today; even if they are someone else’s mistakes they can still effect you. Through your mistakes, others mistakes and how you react to them molds your being into you.
     
            I’m a full time college student who works a part time job. I live in a stable home with my family and we get by just fine. Some days are better than others but that’s just like any other family. I have a good outlook on life and I’m never really in a bad mood. This is what my life is like right now, but three years ago everything was different. My view on life when I was 15 was one of someone who didn't care about much but themselves. Everything I did was for me and me only. I would manipulate people and lie to them to make myself seem better. I always thought my family was stupid and I really never wanted to be around them. Then I got the reality check of a life time when my mother passed away from a drug overdose.
       
           This experience obviously changed my life forever, my parent just died. It turned my whole world around in one flash of a second. I thought I had lost everything and that no one was there for me. Those next couples of months were the worst of my life; nothing could take me out of the depression that had consumed me. Millions of thoughts constantly circled around in my head about what was next. Who would be there for me when I was sick, when I broke up with my first boyfriend, when I finally found the love of my life, when I just wanted to talk? I had a lot of time to think about what had happened and I noticed my life starting to change.
     
          My goals, beliefs and interests all started to unravel in my head and change into new goals and new interests. Instead of having to get through the next day as my goal I started to look towards the future and where I would be in ten years if I didn't change. My value system for other people and for myself changed as well. Instead of only caring for myself I started to wonder why I was the way I was. What was the point of being hateful for no reason? Everyone deserved better from me, including myself. I had to make the hardest choice in my life that day. Was I just going to sit around feeling sorry for myself or was I going to get up and change. Well I chose to be the person I think my mother would want me to be. Instead of always taking people for granted and judging them on their mistake, I always try to look beyond that. How can I judge someone for something awful they have done then expect them not to do it back to me? It’s definitely hard to get past something like this but as humans it’s our nature to survive, to get through the hard times and into something new and wonderful.
     
      My mother made a huge mistake on March sixth. She just wanted to push and push her limits to keep getting higher and higher. Well she got what she wanted in the end; she’s so high right now in heaven with God that I’m jealous of her. I can’t wait to be next to my mother whenever my time comes. I know it was an accident, a mistake, but now that it’s happened no one can go back in time to change it. What’s done is done so instead of crying over it all the time I choose to embrace it. Her death taught me so much, even in her afterlife she still teaches me things. Someone very close to you can be taken at any time by any series of events in a flash. So enjoy every moment you have with them on this world. My mother taught me to never take life for granted, even if it isn't your own.
       
         Now you can see that others mistakes can affect you in a greater way than your own. Of course I still wish my mother was with me today, but looking at the brighter side of the situation if she had never made that mistake I would have never found my motivation to change; to rise out of the slum of drugs and alcohol and start my life the right way. Now others mistakes are most definitely not the only thing that helps define you as a person. Every choice you make every day of your life leads you deeper and deeper into your own self. You establish your core values and guidelines that you live by through mistakes. Without them your life would be pointless, you wouldn't have anything to live or strive for.
     
        My life is just like anyone else’s. I go to school, work, I have friends and family who support me and I just live my life. But what may be different from others is that I have a personal credo unlike many others and could be considered weird.. My set of beliefs that drives all my thoughts and behaviors is not some great moral saying or a religious statement. What drives my actions is the thought of the actions themselves. With every move you make, thought you think and word that comes out of your mouth it can be considered a good thing, or a mistake that you may have not meant to do, think or say. But that’s what life is! It’s making mistakes, learning from your experiences and making your own path to lead your life on. If I were to die 50 years from now or in a week from now I know that I would be okay. Whether it was a mistake or not that killed me, it was my life and I know I lived it to the fullest.