Our Broken World: A series of ever-changing opinions

Measures of Regret

     The experience of regret is something that we have all come to know and... 'love' over time. Whether it be just the decision to wear the wrong hat with those pants, or having a college fund, and then using it on a wedding and to raise a family instead, then not having enough money when you failed math and had to retake a class you could no longer afford *cough* dad *cough*. Some people are just naturally set up for a life with more chance for regret. Most likely, big choices that have the potential for future regret come with a tradeoff, a risk that needs to be taken on one's own terms. Sadly, these risks are not always worth what comes of them, and the amount of stuff that one can afford to lose is different for everybody. Words that most people have heard before, words like "stick to what you know", words that make it hard to differentiate themselves from generations past. Words that do not inspire learning. Words that, aside from being a little depressing on the surface, are accompanied by hidden tones of faithlessness telling people that they should give up before they even start. Many doctors, artists, scientists and more have been lost to this factor, and it is something that was simply set up by the environment that some people just happened to have grown up in. Many others are also subjected to blind privilege, a right they are not even aware of having, because who else's experience are they going to compare it to? There are so many crazy factors that can determine one's success now that, it no longer takes skill to qualify for a job, and more so a string of positive views from other people. Views that some people are born with by default, while others have to work twice as hard for even a fraction of the approval of most people. It is all just bits and pieces of ugly colors fitted together to make a grey mass of the systems that we have lived with all our lives, and that of which will be passed on and added to as time continues running.

     Things that people hear repeated over and over as children make up a rather fair portion of what that person will believe in the future, and though, when they are grown, people can easily recognize how ill-informed they are in their youths, that basic understanding of how the world works is indeed a tempting illusion to maintain. No one likes to rethink their accepted reality to expand and include new things, especially when they grew up learning that there was nothing in the grey area outside of their little bubble. Comprehension is a thing that people develop as they age, something that is well known, and mostly why school is taught at increasingly faster rates as time goes on. In this system, children are congratulated for what they excel at from an early age, promoting the ideas that people should stick to what they are good at, and this leaves little room for development and can end up trapping someone in a fixed mindset, in which they inherit the thinking that this one thing is what they can do, what they are made to do, and all they will ever be. It ceases opportunities that would allow them to grow in every direction. Many people had wished that they had broadened their horizons at an early age, but guess what? It's never too late. Always wanted to learn Swedish? Go and do that. The ability to think about everything as a challenge not yet conquered is hard to start doing, but one someone has, it sets them up for better problem solving skills, new things to work towards, and a future to want to make, not only for themselves, but for others as well. Avoiding regret is something that people will never truly live without, as it is a key factor in humanity, but there are certainly parts of it that can be dulled and parts that can be brightened by our decisions in the present. For "you can't change yesterday, but you can ruin today by worrying about tomorrow," and "no amount of guilt can change the past and no amount of worrying can change the future." We can't let our tomorrows be consumed by the stresses of our yesterdays. All we can do is live today.

     Some people are blessed with a life in which they have no need for regret, but for those of us who do, it is our duty to accept what has happened for the sake that a single person is the only one who can even remember to regret it. What does it matter if only one person remembers a regret other than to use it to move on? It doesn't. So all that has built this world, despite its grand regrets - or what should be, at least - is a mere learning opportunity.