It’s interesting that you weigh material vs. happiness. The consumerist nature of today’s society makes material=happiness. Certainly happiness is more important, even if it’s without material goods.

It’s usually those un-self-aware ones who run hastily through daily nonsense without thinking at end up at the end with a big questionmark they’ve been stuffing behind their backs all their lives — those are the ones with problems in later years. They may have had their achievements in place, but it doesn’t mean they are happy.

I did my best to catch happiness but neglected the material aspects of life. Now I’m paying dues for that, but I’ve no regrets as to my actions except for being a bit too stupid here and there. If I had to make the choices again, would I have built a material empire at the expense of happiness? Never!.

@SpiritBeautifulRevolution — What you said that most sticks out in my mind is “The things I regret are the things I never took the chance to do, but I am doing them now so it doesn’t matter”. This is a great way to live, and a great attitude to have. I should try to to and have the same.

Find the real you, learn (read: rediscover) the essence of what makes you happy, and take it from there. Listen to your intuition and realize that you are exactly where you need to be - and that’s asking questions and re-evaluating. Have fun, for God’s sake, and enjoy where you are right now.

Perhaps they’re not.

I’d like to correct you by saying: Really, not.

Anything I read of you, anything I see of you (your art, your work, your words in which you reveal your heart), has ever been less than the last piece of you I’ve read or seen. I have only been following you for a little bit now, but I know that you are amazing and lovely and have been growing and progressing even more into a wonderful person.

So quit it, the whole doubt thing. Doubt sucks.

The fact that you qualify “experiences” with the word “psychological” reveals the level of your scholastic background.

@Zaira — You’re dead right…instead of focusing on what I’m missing or what I should have done, I should be focusing on what I’ve been able to achieve already, which probably wouldn’t be possible had I not made those choices I did.

Perhaps age is more of a state-of-mind than I first realized. Thanks for helping me see this.

Recently I saw a movie where a character says “fortunately, we are not married to our past.”

So the past is past, learn from that, and know that you may not have this blog that inspires, lifts, engages and invigorates people if you had taken the piano. You may have been a mama’s boy if your family life were different. Who knows? But you’re not married to your past. So there you go.

And you’re not even thirty yet, so what’s this oldy oldness talk? Old is when you’re grumpy and unwilling and unable to accept change. Eff that Ess.

@Lucy — And I think to myself, “If someone can pick up and start over at 30, being through divorce and kids, I have nothing to complain about”. I’m slowly discovering how true is the aphorism “Life is what you make it”. Scary and exciting in those situations must be delightful, a true sign that you get to start over.

@Jayme — Perhaps a distinction can be made between wishes and regrets. I generally don’t regret things, since I make the best decision for the time, but I certainly wish I was smart enough to know the right thing to do. Definitely a fine line when it comes to the past. In either case, you’re right in saying that they’re scary things to put on paper.