Bouncing Back

I really admire people who bounce back quickly after a crushing disappointment and get back to their feet. They wake up every day looking forward to the day ahead without thinking much about the past. They do not revisit old chapters, and most importantly, they’re present.In the here and now. I think it’s a useful skill to have; not dwelling too much on the past.

Once we had a discussion on how children are usually the happiest because they don’t know much about life yet, and you know what they say about how ignorance is bliss. I’m not saying they’re completely ignorant. They’re just ignorant about the negative side of things that come with time and experience. But what if their strength lies in their ability to forget. If they remembered every time they cried when they fell, would children be able to learn how to walk. Have you seen two five year old brothers fight, and then once they’ve gone to sleep, it’s like nothing happened the day before? It’s like they formatted their hard drive. Whatever grudge one of them might be holding over that toy his brother broke is gone. ‘Ignorance’ would indicate that they haven’t processed the incident to feel anger (and fight), but ‘forgetfulness’ means that it was acknowledged, yet forgotten after the fight. So what makes kids happier? ‘Ignorance’ or ‘forgetfulness’ or both?

But I still think that bouncing back quickly is a cool skill. Maybe as you grow older, the time it takes for you to bounce back to your feet follows a bell-curved shaped. When you’re a kid, that time is super short, and then it increases only for it to go down again with age as you realize that disappointments are a part of life. So there’s no use reacting to it. And the sooner you get back on your feet, the better it is.

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