 
Regrets...I've Had a Few
In just a handful of days, the housemates already have their regrets, but what purpose do they serve?
With all the tantrums, fights and, um, physical activity taking place
in the House, it's no surprise there's been more than a few regrets
as a result.
Take the first eviction. As soon as they decided together to evict
Hasan, regret and guilt swept through the house like a case of bad
guts.
What caused Caroline the most distress was going against her instincts
by nominating Shaneen rather than Hasan, in order to spite Tracey.
"It's really bad," she said, wiping away her tears. "I
only picked Hasan because Tracey picked the opposite."
And therein lies a truism about regrets - acting against your real
feelings, your true self will often end in regret. Being true to
yourself, however, rarely will.
Tommy and Tracey were also remorseful about Hasan's departure,
even though they didn't nominate him. "I want him back,"
said Tracey, while Tommy announced: "I'm dead gutted,"
wiping away the tears from under a towel. This is possibly the most
futile type of regret as neither had done anything to facilitate
the situation and neither could have done anything to stop it.
Shaneen even regretted being allowed to stay, knowing her presence
in the house wasn't wholly welcome. "Tommy said he was gutted
that it was Hasan. I was in the room and that upset me," she
said.
But the biggest outpouring of regret came from Jade. As soon as
she and Tommy had finished getting busy under the duvet together,
she fled the bedroom in floods of tears declaring; "My mum's
going to be so ashamed."
This is the most potent form of regret because not only is there
a sense of unhappiness about past actions, but also a dread about
the potential future consequences.
Understandable though it is, constructive it certainly isn't.
However, regretting something can inspire a person to make the
best of the resulting situation. When Jade and Tommy rose the following
morning, Tommy was clearly feeling remorseful about what had happened,
as he sat on the end of his bed with his head in his hands.
Later he admitted to his previous night's bed partner: "I
feel well guilty." But rather than allowing them both to dwell
on their regrets, Jade stamped it out. "I don't want you to
feel guilty," she told him. "I don't want there to be
an atmosphere between us." And with that she managed to make
the best of an awkward situation.
So despite having the biggest regrets of all the housemates, Jade
managed to turn those feelings round the most successfully. There's
a valuable lesson in there. After all, the fact that Edith Piaf's
song "Je Ne Regrette Rien" is such a classic, is because
of its positive message.
Regret, like guilt can be extremely destructive - that is, until
the person who is feeling it has the strength to turn it into something
constructive.
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