Growing Regrets

At some point in life you realize that the doors of opportunity are closing all around you. At some point you realize that you've been hemmed in by a lifetime of choices. This may not be an all-bad thing, but it's not a source of inspiration, either. As you go through life making decisions, you may not be aware that you're closing doors every time you make a choice. But at some point the passage narrows and you can't help but see that there are very few open doors left. The older you get, for instance, the harder it is to find someone you'd be interested in having a relationship with. The older you get, the harder it is to find a job that means anything to you other than a paycheck. The older you get, the harder it is to learn something new – something you decided not to take up when learning was easier. The older you get, the more doors start closing around you just because you didn't do something sooner. You should have planted a tree 30 years a go if you wanted to see it grow. You should have gotten the dog a few years ago if you wanted to outlive it. But in an existence where you have to live life forward and look at it backward, how else could it work?