Leave Your Regrets at the Door

An Elective on Perspective

                                                     by UMES Junior Brittany Johnson 

Leave Your Regrets at the Door

Alas, here we are at the end of another semester. In three days I’ll be at graduation ceremonies. I’ll watch many of my friends walk across a stage, in a building, on a campus where they will never again be; excluding the occasional visit. They are people who are close to me, closely acquainted with me, and others that I should have gotten closer to. But, that sounds regretful; I’m not supposed to have regrets, right? Honestly, how are you supposed to handle end of the semester regrets? Do you carry them over into the next? Or do you wipe the slate clean in hopes of them never resurfacing with the risk of history repeating itself. I live in my head. I rehearse situations more than I interact in them. I’m forever overanalyzing every situation. What if I was the one walking across the stage? Would I be carrying regrets and “what if’s” across with me? If I graduated at the end of this semester, I would have plenty of regrets. Just this week one of my friends told me that he doesn’t regret anything that he’s ever done. He isn’t proud of a lot of things, but he doesn’t regret them.

Thinking of myself, on the other hand, I agonize over every step that may have been misdirected. I have regrets before I know the end result of my decisions. What good does it do? It usually does no good at all. People carry regret to their death beds; sometimes it’s the reason that they’re there. So, maybe I should consider my friend’s “live life with no regrets” motto. In most cases, regret and change are not interchangeable; neither is one a precursor for the other. People have carried regret with them for years and continued the same behaviors that caused whatever it is that they regret. Regret is the equivalent of looking in the mirror with your hands tied behind your back; you can’t change a thing, all you can do is look at the problem and not many take the opportunity to keep it from reoccurring. 

Regret triggers guilt, sadness, anger, contention with self, and invalidation of self. If you regret enough of your decisions, then you start to distrust yourself. Second guessing your first mind yields more options, and more options aren’t always a good thing. This semester I’m going to make a conscious effort to refrain from distressing over my dissatisfactions. Instead, I will take note and change my behavior where needed. 

See you guys in the spring!

You’ve just taken, An Elective on Perspective.

UMES Family!

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