With the passing of time we become wiser and with the accumulation of experiences from which we are "supposed" to have learned from them or from those experiences that have happened to others. Although there is a saying in a very wise town, which says: "nobody learns from someone else's head". I don't know if the English translation is correct, but "escarmentar" is synonymous (according to the dictionary) of disciplining, correcting.
The fact is that everyone grows as much as he/she wants and I particularly feel that I have grown a lot as a person because I have learned to take advantage of good and bad situations. Growing up also implies to harden up a little, to stop allowing others to take attributions that should not be taken. Therefore, setting limits. I remember a phrase I read through an image on instagram: "what you allow you promote". I didn't make much effort to read what the rest of the description of the phrase said, but I managed to internalize it and I tried to apply it to everything in my life. What is it that I am promoting right now? That is why it is necessary to make our opinion known or at least to make it clear. This simple act means that you will not be liked by the vast majority but you will gain the respect of everyone. That is why if I were to meet someone at the moment I would not like my personality very much because I do not like to force things, I mean as to whether I like someone.
I also recognize that there are aspects of my personality that I need to improve or work on, such as spending quality time with my friends and family. It is something I should strive on because we are all very immersed in work and daily occupations but time is consumed having a very important particularity: it goes by excessively fast and the: - "tomorrow I'll send you a message to know how you are" may not arrive or it may not be the precise moment when the other person needs it. Many times we go to bed at the end of the day, exhausted with a person in mind, whether family, friend or acquaintance knowing that we can help them with something else but without the certainty that tomorrow will come, both for us and for them; so doing this reflection I say to myself the time to connect is now.
The images are my own, taken from my Samsung phone.
Translated from Spanish to English by DeppL (free version)