God doesn’t waste the years you think you wasted. He’s good at reusing material.

A stretch of time you regret still happened, and it still left things in you that you now have. The dropped course, the wrong crowd, the job you hated: those years produced instincts and a clear idea of what you do not want. Calling them wasted is a judgement made from one angle. Material is rarely as useless as it looks while you are ashamed of it.

Go back to the period you would edit out and write down three things you actually know because of it. Not silver linings, just facts you learned. Then find one place this week where that knowledge is useful to someone.