“The past is your teacher. The present is your opportunity. The future is your reward.”
That is the famous quote by Zimbabwean author Matshona Dhliwayo. And if your past fails to teach you anything, then you my friend are in trouble. I see people repeat the same mistakes over and over and wonder, did they not learn anything?
As you fall in and out of love with wrong person after wrong person, does it ever occur to you that no, ‘you don’t have a type’, as they say; you simply never learn from your past?
Even when the present presents new opportunities, you are reluctant to seize them because you are too busy being hang up on your past. And we are many like that. Dreams have withered and died, because we simply can’t let go of the crashed dreams of our pasts.
I saw a TikTok video of a 103-year-old virgin in Tanzania, who is still waiting for her mzungu love interest that she met in her youthful years and he promised to come back to her. She is still waiting. And will probably die waiting.
In the comment section, many responders found the story funny; I found it sad. Classic case of getting stuck in the past. I have no idea how many opportunities presented themselves to this woman and she brushed them off.
Her present and her future are all firmly locked with her past. How many of us are just like her? In fact, I felt as sad for her as I did when I first viewed the now iconic photograph and video of the couple that was separated by the Korean War of 1950 to 1953.
Separated in 1950 by the war that created North Korea and South Korea, Lee Soon-kyu and Oh Se-in were reunited in their 80s in 2015.
The only difference, Oh Se-in had moved on to remarry and have a family, while Lee Soon-kyu waited all those years with their 65-year-old son (Lee was pregnant when they were separated), for a possible reunion.
I did not even know what to think of that. I just felt so sad! Allow yourself to learn from the past and enjoy the present, in order to see what the future holds.