A Facebook notification, for a few seconds, got him off his favourite lager. He smiled as he read through the message and the subsequent responses. See, this my friend is not the type that will let go of his drink even for a few minutes unless something is bothering him – or is really funny. So here he was reading some messages he termed ‘silly’, switching his facial expressions between a grin and a sneer.
Then he turned to me, showed me the message and asked, whether there was anything I would like to change about last year. The bottle of beer was half way to his lips. I found the question laughable.
He took a sip and looked straight into my eyes. He never did that unless he was serious. And even though he was already drunk, I knew he wanted an answer and there was no way he was taking a ‘no’ for one.
“2017 was quite memorable for me,” I started.
He signaled me to stop talking. And began his narrative: “Me I was very glad to leave 2017 in the past. There are a million things I want to forget about 2017.”
He went on, narrating to me about how broke he was each month, and because of that, he rarely had a decent meal. He also claimed he had really made some not-so-good relationship choices. He regretted most. I swear I saw a tear roll down his cheek, although he briskly stopped it from dropping into the half empty plate of plain chips I was sure I would be paying for.
“If I could just make peace with my past and move on, I would gladly do so. But I have failed. It is very tough. All the girls I have dated have been hell. One gave me some kind of infection. The other was a not-so-good quarrelsome girl,” he continued with his monologue.
I was not surprised that most of his problems stemmed from not really keeping his zip up. That was his trademark. I wanted to tell him that remembering and talking about them will not help and that all he needed to do was to focus on only the positives. I wanted to let him know that a certain wise man once said one had to make the best of his past since regret will only give him something new to regret.
He read my mind and stopped talking.
That is when I told him that some things happen for a reason. And that although he will always live to regret some, he did not have to pay attention to them.
“One bad year with bad girls should not drag you behind,” I advised, thinking about my not so good 2017 either.
“Because there is no way you can undo whatever has already happened.”