Living With Regrets.

re·gret

  [ri-gret]  Show IPA verb, re·gret·ted,re·gret·ting, noun.

verb (used with object)

1.

to feel sorrow or remorse for (an act, fault, disappointment,etc.): He no sooner spoke than he regretted it.

2.

to think of with a sense of loss: to regret one's vanishedyouth.

I know people always say you shouldn't live with regrets, but really...who doesn't?

If you don't regret anything you've done I'd say you're pretty lucky.

I certainly don't dwell on my past screw ups and I've definitely learned from them, so while I do live with regrets I don't regret that I have them.

I regret how I treated people in high school.  From boyfriends to friends to teachers to people I didn't know very well I often wasn't nice.  Life was rough for me in high school and I took it out on anyone and everyone.
Learned from that.

Now I do my best to treat people with respect.  I also do my best to be patient with people   who are ornery with me.  I don't yell at servers who forget my drink, I don't flip off people who cut me off on the freeway and I always thank people who check me out at the grocery store, whether they were friendly or not.  How do I know what they're going through?

I also regret not getting a college education right out of high school.

I went to college right out of high school and I flunked out.  Seriously flunked out.  In fact I was asked not to return to that university.  I also came home pregnant, which put college on further hold and then I chose to work and party instead of go to school.  

Learned from that.

Sometimes life's "fun" needs to be put on hold for the more important things.  For instance, we had children young and it broke us.  We have noooo money.  If we didn't have kids I could be working full time and we'd live in a smaller apartment and we'd have the money to travel and play.  But, we decided it was right for us to have children early.  Sometimes I get jealous of my kid-less friends who are still out having a good time but then I remember when we're 45 our kids will be out of the house and we'll be free to travel and play while my friends are raising children.

Is regret such a terrible thing?

I just realized my last paragraph doesn't make sense, but It made sense when I wrote it so I'm leaving it as is.  :)  

Happy week!