Call for Personal Essay Submissions: Learning from Regret

Current Submissions theme: Learning from Regret

Here at Mookychick, we would love to hear your personal experiences with learning from regret. Whether it be how you tackle the unwanted associations of regret, or a personal experience of how you overcame a difficult situation, your unique and personal perspective is welcome.

Be sure to see our submission guidelines and read our exploration of this latest personal essays theme below before sending in your work. There is no upper word limit – simply take the space you need to say what you want to say.

Please send your personal essays directly to Chloë Moloney, at [email protected]. We will be honoured to read your work, and can’t wait to hear from you.

How does one tackle regret?

Regret is a complex emotion. Usually a response to past events, regret can often be debilitating and paralysing. Yet its aftermath can help us to learn from our mistakes and start afresh. Regret not only changes an individual, but can vary as a result of someone’s background and upbringing. What do people most regret? There is no definitive answer. The topic is a personal one, nuanced in its emotions and cause. Whilst your regret may be personal, your self-reflection and internal work to grow and heal can help you feel release from the past, as well as helping so many others.

Whilst regret is something we don’t like to experience, it’s a powerful emotion in terms of personal growth. The ways in which we both learn from and overcome regret are vital in informing us about how we can do the same.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

Henry David Thoreau

Should you wish for a little stimulus, ‘The Living Years’ by Mike and the Mechanics is a great song which addresses the complexities of living with regret.

I know that I’m a prisoner / To all my Father held so dear / I know that I’m a hostage / To all his hopes and fears / I just wish I could have told him in the living years

We all have our own ways of learning from regret. Perhaps Mike Rutherford used songwriting as a tool to heal. Whilst Rutherford’s song discusses the passing of his father, the emotional intelligence behind the song is enough to help us all connect to our own pain, loss, self-knowledge and emergence as someone new.

I look forward to reading your work!

With best wishes,

Chloë Moloney

Mookychick Team Editor | [email protected]