8.16.2010

No, I regret nothing.

In my very first post, way back in January, I said something that I no longer believe. I was wrong. I am more than willing to admit it also. This post will be a correction of that post. Here's what I said:

"I've heard a million and one people tell me to "live life without regrets". Not only is that just short of impossible to do, but also, I find no purpose to it. Regrets can also be called mistakes. We do stuff we shouldn't have. We look back and feel that knot of guilt in our stomach. I am a firm believer in the fact that all humans--excuse me-- MOST humans learn from their mistakes. If we live life without regrets, we'll keep making the same mistakes over and over again. But sometimes there are things that we must face without regrets, no matter what our gut may tell us to do."

Corrections:
1. I haven't even met a million and one people.....I probably haven't even met a thousand.
2. It is NOT impossible to live life without regrets. In fact, I'm doing it now. I regret nothing so far. Do I regret doing some naive and immature things? No, I don't, because I realize now how stupid they were and I'm sure I won't do them again. Do I regret asking certain, possibly stupid/obvious, questions? No, because I learned from the answers. Do I regret posting the paragraph above? No, because that proves that I'm only human--that I make mistakes, but I can correct them.
3. Regrets aren't mistakes......I have NO idea what I was thinking when I said that. The definition of REGRET is "A feeling of disappointment or distress about something that one wishes could be different." The definition of MISTAKE is " An error or fault resulting from defective judgment, deficient knowledge, or carelessness." I see no likeness whatsoever between the two words. You can regret a mistake, but they are not the same thing.
4. MOST humans don't learn from their mistakes or the mistakes of others. SOME do. If most people did, we would have a world free of dictators, wars, sin, and corruption. Because these things carry on, however, we can assume that someone didn't learn from either his own or someone else's mistake(s).
5. If we live life without regrets, we won't make the mistakes again, but we won't look back on them as bad experiences. Some of them may be, but we need to look at positive aspects of those situations. My sweetheart ordeal made me realize that it doesn't kill to go out on a limb--granted, it may hurt, but it doesn't kill. I am now more willing to go out on limbs when they are presented to me, and now that I know how painful (emotionally, of course) a situation like that can be, I can be ready for the pain next time. It's like a mental acetaminophen.

Despite my mistakes while writing that first post, I do stand by my last sentence: "But sometimes there are things that we must face without regrets, no matter what our gut may tell us to do." There are things in life that prior to doing, we will say to ourselves, "I'm going to regret this, won't I?" We cannot let that stop us. Sometimes we need to do things that we might regret because they make us better people. They shape us and they shape society. There are also things in life that we will have no choice but to regret, and we just have to deal with those feelings of regret. We need to learn to come to terms with our actions and the consequences of them.

Edith Piaf's signature song, "Non, je ne regrette rien," is the perfect summary of what I'm saying. It was one of the final songs she recorded. In English, it means, "No, I regret nothing." She died not too long after recording it, and she didn't regret anything in her life. I think we all need to be like Mademoiselle Piaf in that way....we need to be rid of our regrets before moving on to anything else*.

I've talked about regret a lot today. I've written 2 posts today and my other mentions it at least once. Regret is something that's tried to recently pry into my mind, but I am fighting it off and making sure it doesn't return. I don't want to have regrets, and regretting my past actions will prevent me from growing and moving on.

*Not necessarily death, such as in Edith's case.

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