Regret

[Firefly]

I debated about posting this thread, but the General Discussion seems to be slow lately, and hopefully it'll wake up soon...

Recently I've been thinking about things I've done and things I've said, and I realize I regret some things in life. I used to love the fact that I lived without regrets, but within the past year or so, I look back and realize I've done a lot of stupid things, and made a lot of stupid moves. My views and opinions have changed so much in just the past year, I don't hardly recognize my old posts.

I read some of my old posts, and I have to say I was pretty shocked that those were MY posts. Now of course this is only the internet, what should it matter...but I really didn't recognize myself. Of course at the time I feel like I was a different person. More naive, than anything. I'm still pretty naive but I'm getting better...I also think I was pretty cocky, and if anything, really bitchy.

Anyway, to not make this just a rant, I'd like to know if you guys regret anything, and how you feel about regret. Any stories you might wanna share, or any opinions you might have on it.

Also, if flames could be kept to a minimum on this, debate is fine, but nothing too brutal...

[Kwiz]

If there's one thing I detest about myself, it's being childish. You know those memories of stupid little past actions that embarass you whenever they come back to the surface yet somehow seemed to be acceptable at the time? When I get those, they're almost physically painful.

- Ironically edited for spelling.

[Lateli]

I regret basically dropping out of school in the 7th grade. I made it into college and everything, but it's going to cause a culture shock for me when moving into the dorms, and a homework shock :rofl: .. I also missed out on a lot of scholarships that were only available to highschool students :/

At the same time, I love the experiences and encounters I've had, and I wouldn't trade them in...

[Angelyne]

I've said and done things that I'm not proud of, but there's no point in regretting it later. All of my experiences, even the bad, regrettable ones, have made me who I am today. Even if I could go back and do things differently, I wouldn't.

[Postmonger]

Regret is kind of funny in a respect. Because although for a while, you may think what you do is childish and stupid and all, after a couple years, it's gonna make a pretty funny story. So basically it's a matter of your pride taking a couple of hits when you do something stupid. No big deal at all, whatsoever.

[GovernorOfCA]

Kids have horrible memories. When I was a child, I could punch someone in the head and make him cry, and, by the next day, he would've completely forgotten about it. The dumbest kids had the worst memories. When I was a child, I was cursed with a memory that was fifty times better than most my age. (ha) So that meant I remembered all the dumb things I did, and got mad at myself more than other kids with worse consciences/memory banks. As I got older, I'd still dwell a lot on the stupid things I said or did.

My strategy then and now is to avoid thinking about past stupid actions and concentrate on something else. If I'm sitting, letting my mind wander, and I happen to recall doing something stupid and start feeling regret or guilt, I just think of something else. Postmonger is right in that it does get easier with time to remake previously regretful actions into funny anecdotes to tell friends.

[O-Matic]

No man is born perfect. No man is born ready.
You just evolve like you should, I can't regret things from my past because, well yes as said above, I can't remember them :/
Once when my little brother started crying because he was not allowed to watch tv, I yelled at him and my mother said "don't, you were the same in his age" and I was like WTF?! I whined about this shit? Nowadays I hate TVs and all...hell, you just should not regret beeing what you were.
There's something called wisdom, you gain it by aging. Little by little.

And this, my dear is what you have now. Your mind evolved from kid to...big boy. :)

You were born as a baby, and now you are a big boy. You can't regret things from you past.

I'm sure I'll regret the stuff I'm writing here later, becaue I'm also a naive little boy. wtf I'm 20...anyway, don't bother. try goin' like:"wasn't me" :D

[El_CJ]

I've always felt that dwelling on things in the past, things you can't change, is a waste of time and energy that will always negatively affect my mood. I will never do anything that adversely affects my mood, because I prefer being happy all the time. So, I don't dwell on past events.

This is made even easier, thanks to a hillariously bad memory. Both of my long and short term memories are incredibly selective. I tend to remember the lesson learned by a bad or embarrassing incident, and forget the specifics of said incident. Unless it was physically tramatic (For instance, don't play with the dull hatchet or you'll almost chop your thumb off.). I try to just ignore bad memories until they become weak shadows in the corner of my mind that I can't recall.

I was once a 'wide-eyed youngster' on the internets... back when I first got Cable. In 1995. It took a year of chatting for me to become the careful, cynical person I am today!

[Candyvan Stan]

If we spend our time with regrets over yesterday, and worries over what might happen tomorrow, we have no today in which to live.

[Trump]

Regret? What do you regret? Why do you regret what you did? Maybe you are just thinking about it wrong. Learn from your past, grow from your mistakes and move on. Instead of regretting what happened take something from it, realize it helps define who you are, and become a better person.

[Idlethought]

I'm learning to stop regretting the things that I've done and that have been done to me because had those things not happened exactly the way they did I wouldn't be where I am now, going down the path that I'm going. So yea though there may be some things that I hated back then I just gotta get over em.

[Spaatz965]

My deepest regrets have always involved missed opportunities due to hesitation or procrastination. Very rarely is it the things that I have done that haunt my thoughts...it's those I didn't.

That isn't to say I haven't been thoughtless or cruel or a cad in my past. I have. I don't regret those experiences because I've used them them to better understand my self and hopefully become a better human being...ie, I try to learn from those mistakes.

The mistakes I avoided through missed opportunities...well, I'll never be able to grow from them...

[Annoying MSN Person]

Damn you posting links to here in the IRC. Oh well.

Regret is a great thing to have. It's no good learning from your mistakes if you can't imbue a portion of emotion in it. There will always be times where you have to face consequences and repercussions that could have been avoided with some earlier deliberation on your part. It isn't a matter of "getting over" regret. That in itself is a fallacy. To have no regrets is to have no remorse.

Stupid things, such as getting a $150 ticket for going through a red light on my bicycle, I regret. Even after seeing a cyclist get hit by a car right infront of me, and several near misses myself, you have to be an idiot to be caught doing it. Indubitably, receiving the ticket made me more cautious, but that money could have paid 2 weeks rent. Regret does not automatically evoke superfluous dwelling on the past. Those whom forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

Life does not exist in a vacuum. Your actions are intrinsically linked to the world and others around you. Your minor fuck-up could lead to a catastrophe in the life of another. Such "butterfly effect" scenarios operate at the higher levels of presupposition, but it's still a smidgen self-centred and self-satisfied to declare that you have no regrets for your grievances, even when you may have caused more pain than you acknowledge.

Eh, fuck it. Need more practice articulating my thoughts, but I still can't find many redeeming qualities in these boards. Catch you on the irc.

[Oblivious]

I regret not being able to get this bag of chips open.

[Trump]

I guess it really depends on how you look at it. You can regret something, or you can accept it. If you regret something, you wish it had happened differently and you wish you could go back and change it. Or you can accept what happened and grow from it. Not being emotionally attached to the past doesn't mean you forget what happened, and it doesn't mean you don't take that into account in the future. It just means you don't dwell on it.

[Arctic_Slicer]

Everyday, little by little, people change. A person is no more the same person today as they were yesterday or will be tommorow. People are constantly changing and as such most people eventually come to regret their past activities. For better or worse a person cannot change the things they have done and can only learn to accept their past and move on. What's important isn't what you have done in the past but what you do in the present. If you are still here and are happy with the person you have become then the past is unimportant so long as retain the lessons you have learned from it and apply them to benefit your future.

[Stephy]

My deepest regrets have always involved missed opportunities due to hesitation or procrastination. Very rarely is it the things that I have done that haunt my thoughts...it's those I didn't.

That would be the same for me.

I don't have many regrets. My daddy makes (controls) all my decisions for me.

Meh. I guess the most recent regret would just be that I regret taking only one course over the summer. I should have taken two college courses. Would have made college in September for me easier.

[Bliss]

I regret renting the movie Dodgeball.
I regret renting the movie Rat Race.
I may soon enough regret that I rented Monty Python and the Holy Grail, so it better be good.

But I do also regret some of my older posts. I feel that I have limited thinking ability and I suck at replying to thought provoking threads. If I ever do, I quickly get other users superior knowledge slapped across my stupid head.

[anver]

I think that regret was silly.
Of course you have to learn from the past, but you can't change it, so you should look at it with a minimum of negative emotion.

I do regret several things in my life, but they have made me who I am today, so I am happy with how things have turned out so far.

[Kwiz]

I may soon enough regret that I rented Monty Python and the Holy Grail, so it better be good.

This you will not regret.

[Candyvan Stan]

This you will not regret.


I don't know. Rat Race had pretty funny moments too, and even Dodgeball had its moments. It may simply be that this person lacks a sense of humour.

[Bliss]

I don't know. Rat Race had pretty funny moments too, and even Dodgeball had its moments. It may simply be that this person lacks a sense of humour.

I agree, it did have it's moments, but not many. I prefer movies that make me laugh like crazy. Dodgeball and Rat Race have more stupid, nonsensical humour than anything else and I am starting to grow outta that stuff more and more every year. I remember seeing Kung Pow a few years ago and I loved it. I laughed constantly. Well I rented it again recently and I barely laughed at all.
Back to topic...

[Myrsilus]

There are some things in life we can't just move past so easily. I still have a few particular things I regret deeply. I know what my darkest of days have made me, and even if I have moved on to where I can live comfortably, those memories will never leave me. I will always be somehow troubled by them. Especially when I think of what psychological effects they have had on me. It saddens me sometimes.

I'm doing great in college, I have great friends, great parents, and an agreeable life. My occasional dwelling on my difficult past impedes my growth in life. Sometimes, I can't help but think back on my mistakes, like right now.

Obviously, we all regret the little things that make us look back and cringe at our idiocy. Then there are things that might be out of our control... or things we had not the capacity or strength to deal with at the time. These regrets sting the most.

I acknowledge that the experiences in my life have shaped who I am today, and what has happened can never be undone. I don't dwell on what I could have been much; what concerns me is what I can become with the time I have to grow.

Mistakes happen and we learn to move on. But some regrets haunt us no matter how hard we try to ignore. Somehow we might grow stronger, yes, but in some instances those regrets may also make it just that much harder to exist comfortably. A certain event triggers a painful memory, we end up questioning ourselves and what we value, and sometimes we just end up lost in those regrets, wondering why things had to turn out the way they did and wishing so hard we could forget or change what has been.

I won't discuss my deepest regrets since they're rather personal and quite upsetting to me. It's hard to convey what emotions I want to get through without exposing myself more. I'm sure some of you understand. Sorry about this weird rant.

[Loc]

I've made a lot of mistakes in the past which have made me more cautious and courteous but I'd say they've also given me the mindset of "I'll do whatever I want and damn everyone else".

Conflicting personality but I imagine it's the same for many people (?).

I'd say I regret acting like an idiot at times and not choosing the right thing to do and all.

Basically a lot like Fujin. I don't like opening up to people.

[Druid]

My memories like to attack me with a vengence. And since i've done and said so many things to embarass myself, they've got a lot of ammo. 3 am with just me and my thoughts is not fun.

[japanat]

If you have ever hurt someone and don't feel any regrets, I don't want you near my kids...

I think regrets serve to teach you what not to repeat. Let them modify your future behavior, yes. Run your whole life around them, no.

[Trump]

Do you mean hurt someone intentionally?

Of course I have hurt people before, but I never meant to do it. After apologizing and trying to make up for it, I do not feel any regret. Besides, how can you know what hurts and how to avoid it if you haven't experienced those situations?

[Pierrot le Fou]

I regret renting the movie Rat Race.

Damn straight! You should have bought it!

[blank slate]

I regret getting out of shape this badly. Now I'm busting my butt at the gym everyday.

[Sock Full of Boiled Dimes]

I'm still making mistakes everday and hoping that if I straighten up I'll make fewer mistakes as my life goes on.

Everyone says stupid things and everyone does stupid things. No one is perfect and we are all destined by God to do something that's going to make us grit our teeth everytime we look back on it.

[Pierrot le Fou]

I regret less and less as I grow older. Or rather, I regret things I did less and less. I regret things I didn't do a lot. Like fucking everything with two legs and a pair of tits when I was younger. And recording it for posterity.

[Beowulf]

I regret all the people I've hurt (quite intentionally) both physically and mentally (though mostly the physically). But I've done my best to repent on the sins of the past and have come to terms with the monster I am. You can't dwell on the past. Dwelling solves nothing and accomplishes nothing. Make amends best you can and move on.

[Anders]

I've made many mistakes in my life, and truth be told, most of them I could have avoided had I the motivation to pay closer attention. One thing I don't have is regrets. I acknowledge my mistakes and do my best to learn from them, but If I had the opportunity to re-live my life from young on (knowing what I know now), I would do my best to make the same mistakes over and over again.

[PopCulturePooka]

I regret not being more attentive at work to find out which little bastard customer gave me chickenpox, meaning now I cant stalk and harass the kids family as revenge.

[h2orowe]

I regret being friends first -_-; I regret not having confidence before I knew her.

I regret not going to the hospital to see my grandma before she died. She always made it through before, thought she'd make it through again.

[Nights_into_dreams]

I live my life following my dreams, and I never have any regrets.

If there is something I want to do, I swallow any fear I might have and do it, just so I could avoid having regrets from the "what if" situation.

Sometimes, it worked out rather well (I got arguably one of the most difficult girls in the world to date me) and sometimes it wellllll...makes me fall quite flat on my face (eating a big spoonful of Crisco for one hundred dollars).

I'm happy, and at peace knowing there are no "what if's" in my life.

[Jon885]

I regret making an ass out of myself when I try to make a point and then it's shot down. And I regret a lot of things I've done in the past. I lose a lot of sleep over these type of things.