When Emotions Took the Wheel.

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The last time I made a decision based purely on emotion was just a few weeks ago, and honestly, the outcome wasn’t something I’m proud of.

We had been given a C.A. test in school, and it was an assignment that was based on a topic we had already presented as a group—“Sterility in Animals.” There were three of us in the group: two guys (including me) and a girl. At first, everything went smoothly with the presentation in class. But later on, the lecturer said we needed to go a step further—do more research on the topic, include images, and print everything out to submit. The goal was to get the desired mark. That’s where things began to get a little tense.

So one afternoon, we were in class, and the two of them came up to me and asked if I could work on gathering images and putting them in a PowerPoint for the assignment. At that moment,i was very hungry and wasn't in a good mood, so i just snapped, and then I said no to their request.

They tried to explain that I had to do it since it was a shared responsibility, but my mind was already clouded. I told them I wasn’t doing anything again. I was angry, and at that moment and i didn’t care about the consequences. It wasn’t even that they said something offensive or unfair—the guy didn’t even raise his voice or argue. But somehow, I took their request the wrong way and reacted badly.

Naturally, that upset the guy, and they both decided to go ahead without me. They said they would remove my name from the printed submission and inform the lecturer that I didn’t contribute. Out of frustration and pride, I replied, “No problem.” But deep down, something didn’t feel right.

Later that night, when the hunger had passed and I had time to reflect, I started thinking about how I reacted. I realized I had messed up. I allowed my emotions to dictate my response in a situation that simply needed communication and understanding. It wasn’t that the task was too hard or that they were being unfair—it was just poor timing and poor emotional control on my part.

So, I decided to apologize.

I reached out to the girl first and told her I was sorry for how I behaved. She accepted my apology and appreciated that I came forward to make things right. I then went to the guys' room, and we had a real conversation. That was when he told me he hadn’t submitted anything yet. He said I shouldn’t worry and that he would go ahead and handle everything on his own.

To be honest, that hit me hard. He had every right to be mad. But then he chose to be calm, to forgive, and to still carry the load. This actually taught me something important: just because someone doesn’t react the way you expect doesn’t mean you should let your emotions ruin things.

Looking back, I realize how important it is to take a step back and breathe before reacting. Emotions are powerful—they can push you to say or do things you don’t mean. But once those words or actions are out, you can’t take them back. All you can do is try to fix what’s left and learn from it.

That experience really opened my eyes and next time I'll think twice before allowing anger to put me in a tight situation.

Thanks for reading.

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