"Next time, I'll be better."
Hoda Kotb said those words on TODAY with Hoda and Jenna on March 7, describing how a painful lesson she learned in her 20s regularly resurfaces in her life today.
"My dad passed when I was in college and so during that time, there was a lot of unfinished business," she explained. "If you lost someone, that's how life is. You have unfinished business. Things you didn't talk about. Things you should've said, what was the last conversation."
"If I could redo something, I think it would be to have the conversations," she said. "I've learned from that: Have it. Say it. Call. Ask questions. Do those things because sometimes ... something happens."
Hoda said losing her dad gave her a renewed sense of urgency.
"It just reminded me don't say, 'I'll do it tomorrow.' Don't say, 'I'll do it next week, I'll call later, I'll ask another time. I can visit next week. This week doesn't work.' Just do it."
Jenna Bush Hager agreed with Hoda's remarks, but said "it's so hard" for her to do sometimes.
"Me too, but that's the lesson," Hoda said. "Even though I learned it, it's like you relearn it over and over and over. There have been many times where I've been in that same situation like I wish I would have and you learn."
Jenna shared how she evolved since her 20s. “I definitely stayed in relationships too long,” she said. “I definitely was, and this is so interesting, afraid to be alone.”
“I was not very independent. I think because I was embarrassed by the scenario I was in," she said, referencing her father being president of the United States at the time. Jenna's self esteem was impacted at this stage of life: I definitely didn’t feel as good as I do now about the way I look.”
The conversation was sparked by a remark 20-year-old actor Jenna Ortega, who rose to fame in "Wednesday," said in an interview with Elle.
"I am so fearful of disappointing the people in my life, or even people in public," she added. "I want to live up to people's expectations, which is something that I need to get over, but I'm also scared that, I don't know, maybe someone will get to know me too well and realize that I'm not all that."
Hoda said that quote could apply to other people in their 20s, not only celebrities in the spotlight like Ortega. "That quote is every 20-year-old. You wonder if you're enough. You wonder if you're smart enough. Pretty enough. This enough, that enough. That's really normal," she said.
