I recently watched a video produced by Glamour Magazine, which was brought to my attention by a radio show called Free Beer and Hot Wings. The premise was this: one person of each age from 5-75, sharing the thing they regret the most in their lives. Many responses were the stereotypical “I regret not trying…” or “I regret not continuing to…”, but several of them made me think.
A few of the people responded by saying that they didn’t have any regrets, or that they didn’t believe in them. However, the one that stuck out the most to me was a man, who said that he had many regrets, but wouldn’t go back to change them if he could because those regrets are what has made him into what he is today.
I, personally, have a ton of regrets—truthfully, I don’t believe people when they say that they haven’t got any regrets from throughout their lives. I think that it is utterly impossible to live your life without making at least one decision that you look back on and go “what was I thinking? Why would I have ever done that?” However, it is after a person embraces their mistakes that they can truly learn from them, and can realize that, as the man in the video said, they are exactly what made you into the person you are today.
One of the biggest regrets I have in my life is a cliché, but huge nonetheless. I regret letting one of the best friendships I had slip away into nothing, based on a few petty words that shouldn’t have been said nor should have been taken to heart. I regret letting insecurities from both of us get in between a friendship that had seen me through some difficult times. I regret that, most importantly, our attempts of patching things up didn’t work due to an overwhelming amount of bitterness still being held onto.
I also regret not trying more things in high school. Now, I’m not talking about drinking, or drugs, or anything else you’re probably thinking— my nerdy, quirky, awkward self is talking when I say that I regret not doing the English Academic Team earlier than my senior year. I regret not trying to join pit as a freshman or sophomore. Most of all, I regret that my overwhelming sense of stage fright and hatred of failure stopped me from doing difficult solos prior to senior year. Basically, I regret putting everything off until senior year, when I didn’t have nearly enough time to enjoy the things I fell in love with.
Most of all, however, is the fact that I regret not taking every chance I had to cherish the ones I love. I’m beginning to realize the extent to which I am lost when I don’t see my family and friends, and am definitely beginning to realize what it’s like to lose the family members that I always thought would be around forever.
However, it is now that I realize just how correct the man in the video was. Without these regrets, I wouldn’t be me. Had my friendship not fallen apart, I wouldn’t be nearly as close to the friends I have now. When that friendship fell apart, I heard how some people think about me, and made efforts to change the way I acted for the better.
There’s a chance that had I pursued my love for music early in high school as much as I did during my last two years, I wouldn’t be where I am now. There’s a chance that music wouldn’t be the escape that it is for me now. I probably would have decided to major in music, with the possibility of the pressure taking away the joy I get from it. Most importantly, had I pursued music heavily early on, I wouldn’t have found my love for writing and decided to pursue an English degree.
I have more regrets than I listed here, but I don’t want to bore you with the sad details of my short 18 years. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that although I have regrets, I’m okay with them. I’ve learned from them. I’ve made some of my regrets into resolutions. Since starting college, I have been more dedicated to practicing my clarinet than I have been ever before. Most importantly, since starting college, I have come to realize just how much you take your family, your home, and your friends for granted when you see them every day. Whether it be because of distance, health scares, or simply not having schedules that line up, I have realized just how important it is to cherish every moment with the ones you love most, because you never know when they can be taken from you.
My words of advice?
Accept your regrets. Embrace them. They’re in your past—don’t get stuck on the fact that when you were a sophomore, you never turned in your English paper. It is what it is. Learn from your regrets. Change yourself, and turn the regret into something that you take pride in.
Most of all, love yourself, don’t take yourself to seriously, and for goodness’s sake, let it go. You lived when it happened, and forty years from now nobody will care about something you regret doing your freshman year of high school.
If you’d like to see the video, please visit: http://www.freebeerandhotwings.com/b/What-Is-Your-...
