Have you ever heard someone say, "I have no regrets?"  It sounds like the kind of phrase that should be uttered by a 14-year-old girl, only it's used by 34-year-olds.  Who was the first person to say this phrase?  Why did it catch on?  Most importantly, why is it so wrong to regret something?

After all, isn't a regret just a mistake you wish you didn't make?  It's funny how the phrases we've been programmed to say reveal how little we think about the words that come out of our mouths. The same people who say, "I have no regrets," also have probably said, "Everyone learns from their mistakes!"  How can you acknowledge that you've learned from your mistakes but you don't have any regrets?  If you made a mistake and you learned from it, I'm sorry, but that mistake was a regret.  A regret that fueled you in a positive way, I might add.

I suspect that people do not want to be associated with the word "regret" because it has a pronounced negative connotation.  For example, if a woman admitted that she regretted breaking up with her boyfriend, the image we might have of her is one of spending sleepless, tear-filled nights with her pillow.  "What a loser," we will think.  But we all have regrets; I have yet to meet the person who has never played back a particular event in their mind and wish they had resolved it differently.

All of this is to warn against the dangers of reflexively spouting out bullshit because you were programmed to do so.  Okay?  What up, bitches?