I have no real regrets. I mean, this is life, and life's about exploration, experiences, meeting new people, trying new things, and I believe that it should be one's ultimate goal in life to become a better person, to learn empathy and to learn to be happy without having too much.
I'm sure that many of you are familiar with that lousy little book they made you read in high school, Siddhartha by Hermamn Hesse. (I don't really think the book is lousy, but it's certainly not my favorite book.) But anyway, if you remember, giving away all his possessions and meditating under that tree for years or whatever did nothing for him. It wasn't until he realized that he must first experience and then give up all the vices in the world that he could ever attain enlightenment and nirvana. He began drinking, gambling, and having sex with prostitutes, and then he gave all those things up. That's when he was able to do it, to reach that ultimate, most peaceful state.
That idea, as well as a quotation from an interview with bandleader Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (The Mars Volta), inspire me; When asked what he was most proud of, Omar replied that he is most proud of the mistakes he's made because it's only by making mistakes that one really learns anything. I thought that was a very bright thing to say, and I think he's right.
That's why I'm not too impressed, really, by people who stick to the very straight and narrow and tell me that they've never taken drugs and they've never done this and they've never done that. It's like, well, what have you done? And you can tell me that you understand how difficult kicking a habit must be, and you might think that you can empathize, but you don't, and you can't.
So, yeah, would I go back in time? No, and I'm not ashamed of where I've been and what I've done. These are my mistakes; I own them, and I wouldn't want to take them back.
