[ Daniel releases a breath, nodding a little. He understands, really. Granted, Daniel didn't intend for his mistakes to happen the way they did, which seems to be the difference here, but he imagines the regret is probably very similar.

But he doesn't want to just linger on that. Sympathizing is good, but.. Ken is so young, and Daniel wants to give him something more positive than that too to take along with him. ]

I know it's easy to linger on your mistakes. [ He stares ahead of him as he starts speaking, but then slowly redirects his gaze to actually look at the boy. ] But.. you also always have to remember that we aren't our mistakes. They don't define us, or make us bad people.

[ Or at least - Daniel would never want someone so young to think they're a bad person because of their mistakes. ]

You can see them as something to learn from, even when it hurts. That even when those mistakes have broken things, huge things that you can never get back-- They can also help you learn and create new things in the future. [ .. he smiles at Ken. It's a thin smile, but he hopes it gives something a little more hopeful to his words. ] Do you understand that?