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My regrets
True life: We all have regrets no matter how big or small.
I have just watched this short film on YouTube:
50 people answer the 1 question ‘what is you biggest life regret?’ The question really made me stop and think about a lot of things I have done and a lot of things that I never done when I had the chance.
Immediately no one major regret springs to mind, instead a few relatively important things, the rest are almost irrelevant in hindsight. I suppose my biggest regret is not having a brother or sister (not that I had much of a say in the matter). I have a step brother & step sister. My stepsister and I are more like best friends than anything else. I would trust her with my life, we always have fun when we are together and very very rarely fight and when we do it is over something silly like what song to put on next or who should be booted out of the X Factor next week. I am also so lucky to have friends that I consider family too but it is not quite the same, is it?
Another regret I have is moving away. I moved to Cyprus for a year with my mother and had the time of my life. I had left such a close family behind in Ireland and had been completely wrapped in cotton previous to the move so to be thrown in the deep end and forced out of my comfort zone was a challenge, but one that never phased me until I got home after the hiatus.
During the year abroad I took over Granda’s position as ‘Man of the House’: “Look after your mother for me”, he would remind me on a daily basis over the phone. I also had to start at a new school not knowing anybody and make new friends, some through an entirely different language which I also had to learn from scratch. You would imagine that I would have been intimidated, scared and somewhat nervous but I enjoyed the challenge and dealt with it head on. It was not long before my mother and I had developed a routine, I had friends at home and at school and my Cyproit Greek was of a good enough standard to stir up conversation with the locals.
When I returned to Ireland just in time to begin my first year of secondary school however everything had changed. The people I had left behind as friends were complete strangers to me, despite having kept in contact all year round. I understood the transition from primary to secondary education changes people, after all I was in the same boat, but it was almost as if none of them wanted me back. For that reason I lost a lot of my friends.
In a way it is a bittersweet regret in the sense that my time in Cyprus gave me a once in a life time experience that can never be forgotten. I learned a new language, made life long friends from around the world who I am still in contact with today, I matured and most of all my confidence grew an enormous amount.
You may argue that it is more of a ‘what if’ situation rather than a regret. I am also very trusting which is good in some ways but bad in others. I like to see the good in people before discovering the bad. Sometimes people can be very manipulative and falsely strike up a friendship out of convenience or for an alternative motive but because of these people I have since been able to determine true friends from the false ones.
Already this year through college I have made so many friends, there are at least three that I know I could genuinely trust, and who I have trusted. I also have an amazing group of friends from home who literally know me inside out, every little detail.
It is so important to have people that you can trust but sometimes it is easy to forget yourself and be too trusting. It is important to be a good judge of character. Other than the above I would say I have minor regrets like not biting my tongue in certain situations, spending more time with loved ones before they passed away and not trying hard enough.
Do you have any regrets as little as they may be?
By: kelverz
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