If you know my story, you’ll know that my first three years in high school were pretty terrible.
Just yesterday, my parents told me… You’re doing well now, but don’t you wish you did better in your first few years? Then your CAP will be so-and-so… and the conversation continued along those lines.
I took awhile to think about an answer… partly because I wasn’t sure, and partly because I was eating dinner (it was a really nice dinner).
I told them, no, I didn’t regret anything.
I think, if I had the chance to live my life again, with the same mindset as I had then… I would have made the same decisions. But let’s say, if I had a chance to change what I did… I still wouldn’t have. Even if I would be better off today than I am right now… are my regrets not part of a learning experience as well? And for all the terrible grades and wasted time I went through, I suppose it was a rude awakening as well. So.. yes. those were bad, misinformed decisions. But I don’t regret making them, because I am who I am today because of my failures. Part of me is moulded from that lazy, unfocused student I was…
So I told them no. Because I am happy now. And if I am happy now, what’s in the past doesn’t matter right? That said, the past made me who I am today. So if you are happy with your son today, means what happened before is not something to regret. Because I am the sum of my experiences, good or bad. (I didn’t say this last part)
But am I right to think this way? Thoughts?
September 28, 2011 at 1:00 am
i was just thinking about exactly the same thing few days back. and i don’t think you’re wrong to think this way. if not i’d be wrong too!
September 28, 2011 at 6:03 pm
Thanks stangxr
September 29, 2011 at 11:47 pm
i agree fully too! nothing much that needs to be regretted at this point…. learning is a process….if everyone can do the ‘rite’ thing all the time, then there wont be much growth.
That said, as you move on to adulthood…. there is less luxury for carefree-ness….its the course of nature to move from one phase to another.
September 28, 2011 at 2:02 am
regrets are worth harbouring because it means you are constantly reflecting on your life and thinking about what could have been improved. if you can use it to better yourself and develop a better awareness of what’s good and what’s not, why not? then again regret shouldn’t be felt so much that it keeps you from moving forward. an appropriate parallel would be history, I suppose. People study history to learn lessons from it but they never want their present to be plagued by past mistakes.
also i commented on your post on 23/06/10 (under Poetry on assorted stuff) since you asked for feedback, and it made me think
September 28, 2011 at 6:02 pm
Thanks for the input both here and the other post. Well, I suppose you’re right but on the day I had conflicting feelings about it… Do I know you anyway?
September 28, 2011 at 11:43 pm
Never regret what you’ve done, what you are. Everything and anything that has happened in your life builds up to the person you are today, even with all the stupid mistakes and bad decisions. Besides, without those bad decisions back then, you wouldn’t have this mindset now to rethink your bad decisions anyway. So, yeah, good on you laddie.
October 2, 2011 at 3:02 pm
I was contemplating this over lunch just a day after your post (29th Sept)! Must be a time when we’re all reflecting on our years of high school! I don’t think I would change anything because I think everything that we’ve been through was meant to shape us. All the best for exams Dylan! See you around!
October 3, 2011 at 11:51 pm
Thanks everyone for your opinions. It is always good to see the perspectives of others.
November 22, 2011 at 12:48 am
[...] better for me not to say here. But whether or not it was the right choice, I will never know. Regrets are not something that I like thinking about. But what I do now is that this six-year experience [...]