Consequences.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. One of Newton's laws is relevent in many instances, including the actions and decisions you make in high school. Every high school student needs to understand that the biggest critiques in your life will best the ones whom you hold most dear. Your closest friends will be the ones to make you feel the most terrible about actions that you make. The truth is you will rarely have even half of the amount of close friends you had as freshmen, when you graduate four years later. People change all to quickly, and most of it will go unnoticed until it is too late. The best route to take is the one of not looking too much sleep over anything. It is still good to have an awareness of what you look like in others' eyes, but take their opinions lightly. Adults on the other hand, you should always aim to please. Being right is not always a good enough reason to argue or give any sass. They are the ones with connections that can help get you out of high school to do bigger and better things, so sucking up is always acceptable to an extent. Now after you have made a decision or done an action that you start to regret, it has only started. Once you feel the guilt, and all the eyes on you in the hall, it is a hard feeling to shake. Remember that what ever you did, has happened and is in the past, there is nothing that can be done and your best bet is to move on. Rumors die down and your moment of glory will not last as long as you think it will. People forget, not everyone, but most. The people who do not forget and bring it up just to remind you about the situation, are the worst kind of people. They are typically the ones who are jealous of you and just want to see you down for once, but do not let those irrelevant people get in the way of your happiness. People make mistakes and it is okay. Stay written as an open book, let the terrible teenagers flip through your pages instead of allowing them to write their own biography of you. When people start to do that, they often do not do their research and add too many plot twists.
JSL