Many desires are not eliminated by reality; they’re gradually worn down and “weathered” away by time. As a child, I always thought: when I grow up and no one controls me anymore, I’ll eat whatever I want, and do whatever I want. But once I really grew up, standing in a supermarket and facing a whole wall of snacks, I started to think: this is too sweet, that is too spicy, this is too much trouble, and that—I'm too lazy to take it apart. In the end, I bought nothing.

Later I realized: the biggest change in a person isn’t gaining more—it’s that the ability to “want” slowly disappears. Many things aren’t that you won’t have the conditions in the future; it’s that you won’t feel anything anymore. You think desires will always wait for you, but actually they have a lifecycle. Some things: at 18, you’re moved; at 25, you hesitate; by 30, you feel nothing. It’s not that the thing changes—it’s that the “you” who would be ignited by it is gradually fading away.

So the real regret in life often isn’t that you did something wrong back then; it’s that you clearly wanted it, but kept waiting for later—because the you in the future may not still want the things you want now. People actually can’t control their own changes. In many cases, what time takes away isn’t opportunities—it’s desire itself.