20/20

Hindsight is 20/20. Raise your hand if you've heard it. Keep your hand up if you've heard it as a semi-negative thing. People always say it with a tinge of sadness or regret. A "if I had known..."

But hindsight doesn't just come for choice. It comes for memories and relationships too. I remember in one of my many can't-take-this-small-school-anymore-hate-it-will-never-have-any-friends-after-graduation moments, my Big told me, "Don't you worry. Once you graduate, you'll only remember the good parts."And it's true. I don't remember all the times I wanted to tell my 35 other housemates to simply shut.up. (now!), or grow up or stand up or stop gossiping or any of the other multiple things that drove me insane. I don't remember how often I hated living on a campus of 1400 students, where anyone and everyone knew your business, down to the shirt you were last Friday and the boy you brought to Formal. I find hindsight washing over me like a sweet, cleansing rain and all I remember is the good conversation, the good friends and the good times. I remember laughing till my cheeks hurt in the Fraternity house--not how awful the deuschbag sitting next to me was.

I guess what I'm getting at is this...maybe hindsight isn't a passive-aggressive way of life getting back at us. Maybe hindsight is a protection device. A kind, friendly blanket who, once we've learned our lessons, covers the dirty and the gross and the bad and the uncomfortable with a big furry blanket and says "it's OK." Because what good would it do to remember all the annoyances and all the bad? What would it serve us?

Maybe hindsight is the cousin to regret. When you haven't learned your lesson and you haven't confronted what should be, you get regret. But when you have learned your lesson and done what needs to be done, you get hindsight. If the lesson is imprinted on your heart, why keep the memory imprinted on your brain?

What do you think? Hindsight--negative or positive?

(My sassy side will be back tomorrow. But for now, I needed to type this.)