Live with no regrets. That's some people's life motto, and a lot of people excuse to do really stupid things because hey, YOLO.
Live with no regrets? Please. You'll always regret something. Not being bold enough to stand up and correct someone. Not keeping your mouth shut. Not trying harder. Not doing what you should've done. Not doing what you feel like God told you to do that one time, so you missed your chance.
Look. It's impossible to live without regretting something. All you can do is pick yourself back up and keep trying. All you can do is just try harder and try to forgive yourself. Everyone's got regrets, even the people whose life motto is YOLO and 'live with no regrets.' In fact, I'd go so far to say that they especially have regrets, which is why they use those mottos.
"I'm not gonna live with any regrets anymore." Easier said than done, bub. There's always gonna be that split-second decision you gotta make, and you may just end up wondering, "What if I'd done something different?" later because you have time to rethink that split-second decision.
The point of this? Regret isn't a bad thing. Another word for it is 'experience.' Now you know in this particular situation what not to do, or what to do, and I can just about guarantee that you'll be able to use it later.
Living life to the fullest isn't a bad thing, to those of you who've made that your motto. It's just a bit vague. What does 'living life to the fullest' mean? Does it mean I should just randomly buy a longboard and go on a cross-country adventure? Buy an expensive trip to travel the world? Or maybe just study harder? Ask that person out? Move to another job, or state, or country?
I regret a lot of things. I regret not being more honest with people. I regret not studying harder and not studying the way I should've. I regret the time I've wasted on people who only wanted attention. I regret not practicing my guitar harder. I regret not keeping my mouth shut when I should've. I regret not saying some things that I should've. I regret not keeping in touch with some of my best friends who've become strangers. I regret not being more social. I regret letting stuff going on in my life impact the way I treat the people around me.
I'm gonna live with these regrets for the rest of my life. The memories and the pain that each of them hold will probably fade as I get older. I'll look back over my shoulder and boy am I gonna get hit with a ton of regret some days, and other days I'm gonna be glad that I did some of those things. I guess what I'm saying is, you can go ahead and try not to live with any regrets, live life to the fullest, whatever that means to you. You only live this life once. Do it with a sense that you know you're gonna make mistakes and it's okay. Taking life one step at a time isn't always bad. Taking it one bound at a time isn't bad either, just make sure you don't accidentally bound head-first into a tree, or over a cliff.
Could be another regret, but one day you'll look back at it and laugh, 'cause you took the time to learn from that experience. In games, once you get enough experience you level up. In life, you do the same thing, but only if you actually learn from what gave you that life experience.
So pick your head up, live with that regret, forgive yourself, forgive other people, and keep on going. If you keep walking, eventually you'll end up somewhere, and that may be the place where you've been trying to get to all along.
Love you guys. God bless. Have a great rest of your summer.
--Sonya <3
