The Saddest Story of Life: Regret

Okay, so three years ago I was reading a short story writing prompt on Pinterest. (At least I think it was Pinterest, because, you know, you find these things on Pinterest). The story they challenged us to write was so short that it consisted of just four words.

Write the saddest short story you can in four words

I was stumped—all my pride and confidence of being a competent author kind of deflated when I couldn’t think of any short story of four words—and that too, one that was sad and tragic.

I copied the prompt in my writing notebook anyway to save it for later, eager to find the answer someday. Because you know, writers are all about stubbornness.

Then, two years later, at a family gathering, out of nowhere, honest-to-God, truthfully and completely randomly, I found the long-awaited answer.

Hurray!

I posted it on Pinterest, you know, right back to the place from where it originated; and looking at the cruel world, I didn’t even get one save (till date, at least).

Leaving that sad fact for contemplation by you fellows, I just want to bring your attention back to the story.

I ~~couldn’t~~ didn’t do anything.

Just…wow, that’s sad, you people. You know what is it that makes this one line so pitiable and depressing in my eyes?

Because this basically shows the internal dilemma of someone who was too late—who just wanted to or aspired to do something, knew they could’ve too, but just didn’t succeed in gathering up enough courage for it. It shows life’s greatest regret for something that could’ve done someone some good—but fear, or insecurities, or lack of determination held someone back.

It doesn’t matter who or what was responsible; with the feeling of rue with which this story is told shows that something important was overlooked, some relationship was harmed or broken, some hurt was done and felt.

Moral of the story?

It’s a bloody awful feeling, this regret is. And yet we don’t always take major, prevailing steps to get rid of this joy-sucking feeling of regret like we try to get rid of the blood-sucking mosquitoes on a night in a forest.

All actions that pave the way for an oncoming feeling of regret arise through the hassle of not being able to sort out our priorities.

SORT OUT YOUR PRIORITIES!

(My Computer’s teacher once told me that we never write emails in capital letters because they are kinda hard and offensive to read. Don’t know how that’s done, but I can’t contact my teacher anymore to ask).

(Sorry for being completely, like, brutally random).

(But this is not an email, so I’m going to write this in uppercase, and completely ignore it if you take offence. Sue me later, but sort out your priorities, first).

Here, let me tell you, the stupidest mistake you might be making.

We hurt people who matter, and end up giving excess importance to those who don’t, just because of this blurry misconception we have of our priorities—just because of our inefficiency and confusion of what is right and what is stupid.

We end up betraying someone we love, or hurting them with our words or actions. It’s all sad, really.

The saddest story of life.

Is there someone in your life who knows your darkest and deepest secrets and then pretends they don’t?

They don’t make a big deal out of it, and only talk about it when you’re willing to. They don’t poke you in the face using that as a leverage against you, and they don’t, in any circumstance, think about spilling your secret.

Someone came to mind?

No? Aww, don’t worry, don’t feel let down. You just haven’t lived enough, and you’re going to meet them soon. We all have the magical people we meet in our lifetime, and sometimes they take their grand entry sooner than rest, while sometimes they come along a little later. Don’t worry, they come along every time.

And they are going to know what a true gem you are from the inside, and then they are going to either ignore it—or fix it. They’re either going to help you heal, or they are going to pretend you are perfect. But they are never, ever going to specifically point out these imperfections of yours and make you feel bad about it. They are going to cherish the time they spend with you, and back you up in every matter, and fight the whole world for you.

Don’t push these people away.

Don’t, or I will personally track you down and hit you in the back of your head for being such an idiot.

The people who care, are the people who dare. They dare to remain even when all others abandon you. They are not afraid of being at the receiving end of all your rage if you are having bipolar issues. They are not afraid of being pushed away because they have a spring attached to their feet, and so they come back again and show you how resilience is necessary. Resilience is necessary, it’s on this basis only that we can prove to the Universe how strong a human’s will is, and how far is a human going to go to get what he, she or they want.

Then the Universe is gonna feel sorry it ever messed with you. No hard feelings, though, right, Universe?

Anyway, these people who are resilient are sweet and kind too, and, unfortunately, the most difficult to find…if you have someone like this close to you, hold them closer.

Sometimes it may be difficult, I’m sure, to speak your mind, and be honest while expressing your feelings, afraid of being judged and scrutinised for everything you do.

Are you self-conscious? Ah, no worries, a lot of them are, at some point in their life, except some extreme narcissists. It’s not about narcissism, it’s not about self-consciousness. It’s about who resorts to overcome this—and who decides to let their courageousness consume their fear.

Many times we make a mistake or we act stupidly. Then, we go spending whole days going out of our minds, thinking about something so trivial, and so pointless that in the end of it all, it’s just us and our stupid apologetic minds. During those times of mental dizziness, we forget being happy and in that way, make those around us unhappy too.

We don’t smile or laugh, and then it so happens that those who want to see us smile and laugh end up being disappointed, and feeling like they’re being ignored.

I’m talking about this so much because this happens very frequently. Many times we don’t even notice this is happening, so we don’t even apologise, and obviously we end up feeling guilty later.

To not let these situations take over your life, you don’t need to do much. Make a priority list—yes, priority list—in your mind, and focus on the only name (or few names) at the top. Our lifespan is too short already to spend it trying to impress people we don’t really care about. These people would come at the bottom of the priority list, or maybe they’d be off charts, can’t say really.

To make it a little more worthwhile and important, take control of your life.

Know all who matter to you. Then give them the world.