Learning from the past

as reply to Would you do it again?

would you do it again?

Does it matter? I did it. There was an outcome. I learned a bunch. With the benefit of hindsight, and my tendency towards rose-colored nostalgia, and my tendency to suffer the present instead of enjoy it, things tend to seem better in the past. Daily frustrations are easily forgotten. But so are satisfying wins. What I'm finding remains are the impressions of others. Their presence leaves a mark that is difficult to express in words but lasts much longer.

A different metric: how many good stories did I get out of it? I find the stories are really valuable--for the benefit of my own meaning formation, for learning, for communicating those learnings to new people in the future. 

On the whole, there is very little I wouldn't do again. A couple of relationships. One job. But who knows? Those might have been critical in forming the decisions that came later, that were incredibly important, which led to those things I would have no other way.

The way is the way.