Regrets? I've had a few...

 I vividly recall the above photo being taken, I wasn't very old and the night before we were due to have our school photos taken I decided to get into an argument with my brother, resulting in him throwing a toy car at my face and scratching my face. As you can well imagine, I regretted this the next morning when it came the time for my photo to be taken, I was so embarassed and wished I hadn't argued. 

That's the thing about regret, that moment where you start thinking "if only I hadn't...", it can really eat away at you like nothing else. If I had a time machine I would be hopping back all the time to alter things that I now regret, it would be an arduous task, (and that's without factoring in the butterfly effect, can you imagine!), so I'll leave time travel for now. 

I have so many regrets, some minor and some major, I wish I could eradicate all of them but sadly I cannot. My regret tends to kick in just after I've done something on impulse. The way I've lived my life causes me regret, I often regret time spent feeling down or melancholy, or time spent with the wrong people because at the time I thought they were the right people to hang out with. 

 However, a dear friend of mine told me that most of my regrets are solvable. There is still time to make amends or undo past mistakes and she is of course completely correct, there is always time to alter the narrative BUT...

What if having those regrets is good, the fact I regret my past mistakes show that I'm only human and I've learnt from my past mistakes? That has got to be a good thing right? So perhaps I'll hold on to my regrets for the time being, they are after all part of what makes me the way I am. 

With all of that being said, there are of course some things I would happily change; some notes or letters I wrote to friends could have been written better, some things I said could have been said in a more coherent way and then there are the chances I didn't take because it would mean causing disruption or upset but ultimately would have led me away from sadness and towards happiness.  Those regrets will haunt me for the rest of my days and truth be told, I wish foresight was a talent I possessed but sadly impulsive actions and chaos is my modus operandi. 

So, to sum up; regrets are ok, the only way to avoid them is weighing up every interaction or happening in your life whilst in the moment and potentially any regret later on in life...but where's the fun in that! 

(P.s. I now love this photo, I look gnarly so no regrets there at least)