Wind In My Head: 20/20 hindsight
Wind In My Head
Friday, May 13, 2005
20/20 hindsight
It's amazing how things are always crystal clear when you're looking at it with the benefit of hindsight. In uni, I was upset and cried for days when I didn't get into the course I wanted but now, I'm plenty grateful that I didn't because I wouldn't have been able to go away to Melly had I got in. There're a whole lot of things that seemed to have on hindsight been the best decisions even though it may not have seemed that way when I was actually going through it.I know that years from now, stuff that is happening now wouldn't seem as big a deal as they seem now and I guess, just knowing that offers some degree of comfort.
It is weird though, to see myself using this benefit of hindsight in the lives of other people and knowing full well that you're not going to convince them that you know what it's going to be like for them 10 years down the road if they don't make that decision now.
It comes as a shock to realise, this must be how our parents feel when they tell us not to do things and we go ahead, do it, suffer the exact consequences our parents warned us about and have our parents go "see, I told you so".
I won't even pretend to insist that this person should actually listen to what I have to say. Afterall, she does not know who I am. But I do know that the decisions she is not ready to make at this point and rightly so, will, unfortunately, come back and haunt her ten years from now. It is always hard to make decisions based on what is likely to happen in the future, purely because the future is just not here yet and it's hard to imagine the impact. But the problem is that I am the living proof of her future and I wouldn't wish it on her if it could be helped.
But she will, in all likelihood end up with the same questions and be tormented the same way that I am now, because of the decisions that she is unwilling and not ready to make at this point. Our circumstances are different, but the end reaction will be the same, possibly worse for her than for me because she had a choice at this point in time and her choice, while not being the wrong one won't be seen as the right one in 2015. And that sucks, from where I'm standing.
I can understand that she cannot wrap her head round these things now. I've just about been able to do it and heck, it's taken me this long. She is just too young and she has so much of the natural progression to get through before she is ready to actually get to that point. Thing is, time isn't on her side, so then how? She won't rush it and she shouldn't. But if she doesn't, what happens when she is finally ready to make that decision and realises that the door's been slammed shut and nailed down?
Damned if she does, damned if she doesn't.
Not an enviable position to be in and definitely not when you have perfect hindsight.
Ondine tossed this thought in at 11:52
1 thoughts...
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At 1:34 pm
dagger said... I remember reading an article by Richard Feynmen on education and learning. The gist of that essay was that it was the ability of homo sapiens to acumulate knowledge faster that it can be lost AND the ability for a new generation to acquire these knowledge from the previous generation instead of rediscovering it for themselves that led down our path of developement and the eventual arising of civilisation as we know it. But I guess not all knowledge can be pass down in such a manner, and that there are some things which every generation has to discover for themselves.
