Regret
This word, like many others has somewhat lost its meaning through exaggeration. Like the word, literally, which was used to combat figurative language and metaphor, the true meaning of regret has been defaced. The power behind the word is gone. People regret which dress they bought, they regret splurging on ice cream. Sometimes the things they regret is more serious, like not trying out for a team or calling a friend that they haven't seen in a long time; sometimes it is something that was out of their power: not catching the ball, not seeing through their pseudo-friend's façade. In all of these ways, the word, regret, is used in a demeaning fashion.
True regret is something that you cannot forgive yourself for, that drives you to change the way you act and think. It makes you a different person. When you lament on regret, you are inspired not to be the person that you were in that moment. You realize that something has to change, and that that 'something' is somewhere inside of you. When you truly feel regret, you know it because every time you think about that moment you regret, it tears you up inside.
When I regret something, actually regret it, I know that I will come out differently from it. Yet, no matter how much I do to fix myself, make sure that I cannot feel that same regret again from a later action, I cannot help but be tormented and driven by that same one moment. No matter how I try to correct myself for the future, the past that I regret is set, and while that helps to make me who I am in this moment, it does not change how I feel about myself in that moment, and there is no comfort in that I am different now than I was then because every time I remember that moment, I hate myself.
True regret is something that you cannot forgive yourself for, that drives you to change the way you act and think. It makes you a different person. When you lament on regret, you are inspired not to be the person that you were in that moment. You realize that something has to change, and that that 'something' is somewhere inside of you. When you truly feel regret, you know it because every time you think about that moment you regret, it tears you up inside.
When I regret something, actually regret it, I know that I will come out differently from it. Yet, no matter how much I do to fix myself, make sure that I cannot feel that same regret again from a later action, I cannot help but be tormented and driven by that same one moment. No matter how I try to correct myself for the future, the past that I regret is set, and while that helps to make me who I am in this moment, it does not change how I feel about myself in that moment, and there is no comfort in that I am different now than I was then because every time I remember that moment, I hate myself.