Will I hate Me?

If I were to write a story about 5 completely different strangers meeting up on a train arguing about anything under the sun and thereby mapping out their personalities, I could very well do the same by writing about myself at the different stages of life I have been through these 27 odd years of my life. I can blame the society and its tangled web or I can blame myself for just going with the flow but the truth remains that I have changed. I am not the immensely naïve schoolboy or the insanely reckless college student anymore. What baffles me is that I curse the parents of the 17 year olds who zoom past on their bikes when I myself started smashing up my dad’s scooter at 12!

We change and we get used to our changed selves, so much so that we ridicule our past personas. Nothing wrong with that and in fact, this being the human behavior proves all those fundas that we should do what our hearts tells us lest we regret it while on our deathbeds wrong. We by that time would have changed so much so as to accept our “present” selves to die peacefully thinking “who doesn’t have regrets” or “I did ok” with regrets if any pertaining to what more we wanted to do. It’s human nature to move on...

Having said that, there is one thing I feel is much more important: What do we want to turn into?

If we accept that we will have no or little regrets at the end of the day, does it mean we should just let things be and flow with the flow or do whatever we want to? No, the decision to make here is whether we want to turn into someone whom our present self will hate or not. After all, your future hating your present means your present will hate your future. The feeling is mutual to say the least. The reckless biker who lived for today would definitely hate the risk-averse driver who always wears a seatbelt. And this risk-averse driver will definitely hate the professional who works 6 days a week and doesn’t have enough time for his family.

The older we get, the more trapped we become. It hardly is that our nature becomes rigid; it’s just that our constraints forbid us the flexibility to undo. And then we get used to it all...

Step ahead with caution!

P.S. - This is written for someone and by someone who doesn’t generally regrets his decisions and sulk at “what could have been”. For the full of regret suckers, nothing can ever be done. And yet again, they are used to it :)