Sean Wang Week 15 - Consigliere
Sean Wang Week 15 - Consigliere
“Regret is the most painful thing you can experience in life.” ~ Vincenzo Cassano
Am I writing this because I messed up big time? Surprisingly, no. I just happened to start this blog right after the last episode of Vincenzo (a banger show by the way), so here I am.
As fun as it can seem at times, life is no game. There are no tutorials to live by, no extra lives to grasp at, and no cheat codes to replace the effort that must be spent. And yet, it is in our best interests to forget all of these constraints and live life to the fullest.
Dwelling on the past is a flaw bound to humanity as a whole. In fact, I am confident that no person has ever gone without regretting at least one decision in their life. The concept of hindsight is one that I both love and hate; although mistakes are meant to be learned from, most of the time I just devote my brainpower to wishful thinking and an urge to fix my mishaps with the help of an eccentric scientist and an ever-so-iconic DeLorean. But of course, that would never happen.
Not all regret is created equal either. And the worst part is, you never know how bad something will get until it’s too late. The threat of impending regret is one of the most potent deterrents to revolutionary achievement, causing some to never even consider the possibility of breaking their limits. In the field of mental health, I often hear about depression, anger, stress, and other afflictions, but I’ve never heard anyone mention regret as an underlying cause. The frenzied thicket of negative emotions has us forgetting that deep beneath the thorns, there are roots that continue to leech off the energy we put into remembering those unwanted consequences.
I see that a common topic in our cohorts this semester is the topic of faulty memory. I would argue that there are some things worth forgetting. To live with regret is more than living with a mere mental burden, for such a curse is rarely content with staying put when your entire life is open to ruin. As AP tests approach and college applications follow, just remember that whatever happens, there’s very little you can do to change an unsatisfactory score or rejection. So keep your head held high, own it, and look to move forward. Chances are, you won’t regret it.
Photo Credits: https://www.soompi.com/article/1450552wpp/song-joong-ki-transforms-into-a-cold-hearted-mafia-consigliere-for-upcoming-tvn-drama
Hi Sean,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your blog post for this week and the overall message it teaches. A lot of the time, I spend my time regretting the things I had the chance to do but never did. This fact also applies to my experiences with family member who have passed away. I spent a lot of my time thinking about the things that we were never able to do together. Someone close to me brought up the point that I shouldn't dwell on what I wasn't able to do, but remember all the things we did together.
Hi Sean,
ReplyDeleteThere are many times in my life where I'll be sitting down with nothing to do, and my mind will jump to something embarrassing I did in the fifth grade. I really wish I could stop dwelling on things that happened in the past. I know that those events no longer bear any significance to today, but my brain can't seem to get them out. I agree that there are things worth forgetting, and I hope that this mindset doesn't weigh me down for my life.
Sincerely,
Krish
Hi Sean,
ReplyDeleteAs I sit on the lunch tables in the quad before walking to Los Cerritos for the AP CSA exam I am taking, I'm really glad I read this. All of us have heard the phrase "live life with no regrets." In my opinion, this is something that is really difficult to do, but ends up being a very strong message. When we regret things, we tend to feel guilty or unhappy with what has happened, which may cause us to make vital improvements in the future. Regret is also accompanied by dwelling on the past; something that should be forgotten. I will try to live life with no regrets, and will definitely remember your message towards the end of your post.
I think I kind of touched on this in my blog on Attack on Titan—on the idea of every moment being a part of our core identity. In that sense, I cannot regret and I will not change the past. That is why I love Attack on Titan, especially Eren Yeager—someone who is able to make difficult decisions and overcome personal desires to move forward. It's infectious—the immovable consistency that he expresses in the show. But coming back to the topic at hand, there are things I wished never happened—a lot of pain, a lot of time wasted. But just like how I love my parents despite the endless pain they cause each other and how unreliable they are, I wouldn’t change anything.
ReplyDeleteHey Sean, I completely agree; regret is definitely the most unpleasant feeling one can experience. I've had my fair share of regrets, and reliving them isn't fun. I kinda agree and disagree with what you said about how some things are worth forgetting: I don't think we should ever forget important experiences that shape who we are, but I do think we should forget the emotions we felt around that experience. I feel like that's what would draw us back to reminisce and get sucked back into the past. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Sean,
ReplyDeleteAs you talked about how everyone has at lest one thing they regret doing, and for me it would be not taking APENG. Yes, I regret not wanting to take this class. And the reason is really this assignment. The blog. I really never had a chance to rant out my pain or just talk to a random group of people every week until now, and I really regret not wanting to do this.
Sincerely,
Vivan Waghela
Hey Sean!
ReplyDeleteAs I sit in Suju's for the 10th time in the past two weeks, slaving away as I try to self-study all of microeconomics in the next 24 hours, this post made me smile for the first time all day. You are completely right when you say that we are not defined by grades or scores and there is no point on dwelling on the regrets of not doing well enough when it is more important to see what you can do moving forward. As for the idea of forgetting memories, I'm personally an incredibly sentimental person and while this makes me who I am to an extent, I hate it. I have found that often, it holds me back and I find myself not being able to move on from people or experiences because I romanticize the past so much. I wish I could leave stuff in the past sometimes so I completely agree when you say sometimes it is best to forget. Thank you for sharing and good luck on your AP tests this week<3
Hi Sean,
ReplyDeleteI agree that sometimes some things are best left forgotten. This is present in a lot of popular media representations, be it from H. P. Lovecraft's madness-inducing monsters to grudges among characters that bring down empires. Forgetting is beneficial when it is reducing regret, and regret is a common occurrence. People with perfect memory may enjoy its benefits but also suffer from its downsides, which include an overabundance of memories. People with trauma also struggle with their memories, so forgetfulness is definitely not fully negative.
Sincerely,
Raymond Yu
Hey Sean,
ReplyDeleteI really like the one big point you brought up in this post, your claim that some things are better off forgotten. As someone who also often dwells on the past, strong feelings of regret are naturally a very big part of my emotional landscape. Yet I still find myself disagreeing with you. Although at times it may feel like you want to forget everything you regret, I find that deep down that's never how I really feel. My strongest feelings of regret stem from when the things that make me happiest are taken away from me, and although it would be nice to forget it all, I feel like I'd always choose to remember both the fight and the pain than nothing at all.
Yi-Kuan C.