"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."-The Great Gatsby (p180)
The straightforward, black and white reality of this quote is that we often try to propel ourselves into the past or try to make the past our present. The truth is we turn back to our past because we know its outcome. We don't usually think of how we can change our present through our future, but rather how we could've changed our present through our past. For example, when I receive a test back, and look through the questions I got wrong, I see the mistakes that I could've avoided, not how I can prevent them in the future.
So often we get stuck thinking about the things that we could've improved that we stop working to change the future that will soon be our present. Even being aware that I look back at the past often, I cannot stop myself from doing so. It has become a reflex that we revert to all the time. And so we keep moving backward into the past without glancing to the future that awaits us.
We have to train ourselves, push ourselves, and override the default setting of our brains to be able to move forward and change our future. We are all humans. We make the impossible possible, so why can't we seem to move our heads out of our pasts? Why can't we seem to change the boats direction towards the future?
Ankita, I really enjoyed reading your post! I agree; it is true that we often want to travel back in time to avoid the mistakes we once made and creating new results. Hopefully we can accept the fact that this cannot be done and focus on building a better future for ourselves instead.
ReplyDeleteAnkita, I love your post. I totally agree that often times we try to make our past our present so that we can have more control on outcomes in our lives by not repeating previous mistakes and achieving improved results. I also agree that it is crucial to train the mind to push past this sort of mentality and live in the present.
ReplyDeleteThis post was written really beautifully! It's so true that we keep trying to relive our past while still trying to move forward. We need to learn from our mistakes and change our future.
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