Regret is about missed opportunities

This week in our Man on the Street question, we asked, “What is your biggest regret?” This idea came from a video on Facebook I watched a couple weeks ago.

When watching this video it’s hard not to think about your regrets in life.

The main theme of this video is that people most likely regret the things they didn’t do rather than the things they did do. The common word the people in the video used when describing their regrets was “not.”

Much to my disappointment, we did not get the same results from our survey, but I still think I have some valid commentary on the idea.

“People say they wouldn’t change a thing, even if they could, oh, but I would,” Kenny Chesney sang in A Lot of Things Different.

Chesney has a point in his song. Often times it’s hard for us as humans to admit we made a mistake, but I think deep down we all can admit to at least one regret.

Many times, the regrets we have in our lives aren’t from the things we do, but rather, from the things we don’t do.

“Fifty years from now looking back don’t you want to say you had the guts to get in the car,” Sam Witwicky, from “The Transformers,” said.

How many times have you been invited on an adventure but missed it because you were scared, or tired, or had homework, or any other excuse?

“All you need is 20 seconds of insane courage,” Benjamin Mee said in “We Bought a Zoo.”

Sometimes it takes courage to make a moment a memory and not a missed opportunity. I believe few of us make it through life without missing at least one opportunity.

In summer 2014, one of the most important people in my life passed away from a car accident. Prior to his accident, I spent years avoiding him as much as possible because too many people made the suggestion to me, or my parents, that we were dating. This guy was the older brother my parents didn’t give me and there was no possible way we would ever date, and I was getting annoyed at the suggestion, so I avoided him and acted like he wasn’t that important to me. And now I have to live with the thought that he didn’t know how important he was.

That is my biggest regret.

And that’s why I’ve made it my mission in life to make sure those who are important to me know and really understand how much they do mean to me.

We all have regrets. We all make mistakes. We all miss opportunities. And we all wish we could have redoes in our lives. But life doesn’t have a rewind button. We just have to make the most of what we are given. Let those regrets, mistakes, and missed opportunities shape us to be better people in the future.