I Should Have...

Sidney J. Harris - Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.

What do I have to regret? I'm young, I'm healthy, I have a family who loves me, friends too many to count on my fingers and toes, I'm free to be myself, and I don't have any enemies. What do I have to regret?

I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention:

• I never got to play Sharpay in my local theater production of "High School Musical" 3 years ago, but then at least I got the role of Ms. Darbus and sang "There's No Business Like Show Business". I had fun "confiscating cellphones" and "sending the whole class to detention".


• I haven't done any watercolor-painting for such a long time, but at least I've picked up photography. That doesn't mean I don't still have time to get back to watercolors; I even took out the DVDs that got me excited about painting to begin with. Maybe I'll take it up again. You never know.


• It's been about a year since we last put up a "Leslie and Kyle" video. Still, eleven episodes on YouTube is quite an accomplishment, if I do say so myself. Plus Bettina and Adam still help me sometimes with ideas for our next "big come-back".

Lingering on regrets for too long is unhealthy. That's my philosophy. Any time you waste thinking about stuff you should have done or could have done is time you can spend actually living your dreams, and replacing those regrets with fulfillments. Like Sidney J. Harris says, regret for things you've done will pass with time, regret for things you haven't done is harder to get over.

So take chances! Get messy! Make mistakes! These are the words Ms. Frizzle lives by.

(Points if you remember where you've heard that name before.)