(No) Regrets

My friends and I, as well as many other high-schoolers you may know usually add the term "no regrets" to the end of...just about everything. One time i said it and a teacher overheard me, and he told me that he thought it was very mature of me to think of every mistake as a lesson instead of a regret. I had never really thought of it that way. To me "no regrets" was just something we all said, even if we didn't have regrets to begin with. But after hearing this teachers point of view on it I used it differently, I didn't say it any more or any less - but when I would say it I would realize the extra meaning it had and not just throw it around. Most of my mistakes/bad choices would always be blown over by a simple "no regrets" but never were to be thought of as a lesson learned.

Recently, I made a bad decision that I shocked myself with- it was just something so unlike myself that I still question what was going through my head. It was more than just a stupid mistake-I was beating myself up over it constantly. I couldn't get it out of my head no matter how many times I said "no regrets". Then I remembered what my teacher told me. I couldn't find any lessons pertaining to my mistake but that maybe there is a lesson, not about what I did but about regrets in and of itself. The lesson I found is that maybe a simple "no regrets" can't be used in every situation, lesson learned or not. This has been one of those regrets. I still think it was stupid, and I still wonder what would ever make me be so illogical and irresponsible but hopefully this regret could be kept. I wanted it to just go away like all the other dumb mistakes. But this one will probably stick with me for a long time, and I'm glad because maybe next time  I won't make such hasty and horrible decisions.