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I hate it when a last minute decision to visit McDonalds leads to a situation where I become ill-prepared at the counter. Normally, when there’s a line in front of me, the waiting gives me enough time to think. But when it’s empty and the cashier yells out “is anyone waiting?” I feel socially obligated to step up to the counter at a severe meal-planning disadvantage.

“Yeah I’ll have a uhm…err…” I stumble derpedly. To end the awkward indecisive mumbling, I just blurt out the name of the first burger I see up on the picture board. By the time my stomach decides that there’s actually another burger that it craves, it’s too late. The order has already been plugged into the magic computer machine and my passive personality prevents me from asking if I can change my order. I have made myself committed to the burger.

I then spend the next few minutes waiting, trying to convince myself that my initial order was the right one.

“Ok, maybe they’ll make an extra special one with extra cheese for that extra calcium sustenance. “

“They’ll make this one the tastiest dish ever”

“I can’t wait for it…it’ll be the best burger IN THE WORLD!!!”

But as the order arrives, I can’t help but stare at it and be filled with deep regret.

“Dammit cheeseburger, I never even wanted you!”

Some people have said that if they knew in the past what they know now, they would’ve done things differently, or not at all. I wonder if I was able to go back and tell my former self how things would turn out, if that would lead to me to change the way I did things. But I don’t think that I would have. I imagine it’d be like if the future me was to go back in time and tell me now to change what I’m doing. My reply would be most likely “screw you asshole! I do what I want!”

We’re compelled to do what we ‘think’ will lead us to be happier, no matter how irrational or illogical those actions may seem later on. 

If we erase a mistake we’ve made, we also erase that all important lesson that we learn from it. They’re something we should learn to accept rather than reject. Even though they make us feel like shit, mistakes, in the long-run, make us better people. Unhappy, miserable and ashamed, yeah of course, but better. 

Of course there are exceptions to this rule, for example any mistake that causes you to end up in jail. But generally, mistakes and experiences have helped lead you to who you are now, and who you are now is the most current and best version of you yet.

Someone once said that the best advice comes from their iphone whenever they accidentally shake it – there is “nothing to undo”.