Counterintuitive
This is going to sound strange, but I regret going well out of my way to do something for my family. This is what happened: my grandfather passed on, and I turned down signing the lease of a new apartment with my best friends for a place that was around the corner from my school. Instead, I agreed to move in with my grandma, who lived an hour and a half away, to help support her.
Unfortunately, I eventually got into a car accident falling asleep on the freeway because of how exhausting the drive to school from her place was and messed up my knee pretty badly. Around the same time, my grandmother ending up moving to another home, so I was left to tend to my knee injuries all by myself. I hurt my shoulder using crutches and, at one point, used a rolling chair to pull myself back and forth to the kitchen.
I lost my “recruited in my field” job, racked up some medical debt, felt the onset of mental disorders from the weeks of solitude, dropped classes and my GPA, resented other family and friends for leaving me alone, and suffered a plethora of compensation injuries. Throughout all this, no one came to make sure I was ok. No one.
This was three years ago, and I am still learning to walk normally again. The one thing I can say is that my strength was tested and reinforced. When I close my eyes, I can remember moments when I made it through things that were far from easy. I also learned to never put anyone else’s needs before yours. Selfishness seemed like a bad character trait to me before, but now I see it as a necessity.
You have to look out for you first and foremost, because no one else will.