Ctrl + Y

An analytical look at what we refuse to embrace

I dunno why I find this drawing I did so charming!

Off the top of your head, do you know what the keyboard shortcut for redoing something on a computer is?

Yeah, I didn’t either.

Not too long ago, while writing a draft in Google Docs, I copy/pasted a few paragraphs of something I had written into what I was currently writing.

I’d accidentally started deleting pieces of it and held “ctrl + Z” to undo it. The missing words reappeared, but I held the undo shortcut too long because all the paragraphs I had copied over suddenly disappeared. I hovered my fingers over the keyboard frozen in place because I realized I had never learned the shortcut to redo something. So then it hit me:

Does anyone know the redo button shortcut?

Pondering on this made me realize how the desire to undo mistakes and discomfort has become second nature for us, and redoing anything isn’t even a concept to grasp.

Alright, it’s applicable life lesson time!

The Ctrl + Z keyboard shortcut seems to be a universally known command. My confidence in this theory grew stronger when I remembered that I’ve even seen merch with the shortcut on it (even this shirt drills in my current point).

Undoing is a very practical thing to do when working on a computer. But seeing how often people wish to undo uncomfortable things in their life shows how often people are seeing things they’ve done in the past as painful regrets or mistakes.

I’ve applied this thought process to my own life while I’ve been learning how to illustrate and draw comics. I am absolutely uncomfortable with how my work looks right now. It’s getting closer to a style and design I like, but I’m still constantly critiquing it: too cartoony, the elements looking both too realistic and too childlike… But I keep (sometimes painfully) redoing the process despite this discomfort. And sometimes sharing it still!

I keep hearing that learning new things usually means you’ve gotta be bad at it first, so it’s this tiny fact that helps me continue to persevere.

When you post a piece you’re proud of on social media and get no (or very little) engagement on it, I know people sometimes delete it, undoing–what they perceive–that “mistake” of sharing it with the world.

Or my first real breakup with my first long-term boyfriend… At the time, I NEVERRR wanted to go through heartbreak again (I mean, no one ever does), but I remember vowing to never get in a relationship again after that.

So far, I haven’t been in many relationships since but, for many different reasons than avoiding heartbreak.

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But on a slightly grimmer note… Maybe you’ve done something regrettable.

You can’t “undo” your life, so how will you “redo” that situation next time?

A “situation” can fall under so many contexts, so maybe what happened isn’t something that can be “redone” (or is one you don’t want to ever “redo” again due to safety reasons). What now, then?

Are you still going to try to run from this feeling? From this circumstance? This situation? What can you learn from what you went through?

You’ll be hit with the same lessons over and over until you’ve overcome it. Sitting in the range of feelings an experience can bubble up inside you is uncomfortable. It’s like redoing the moment in time, over and over again.

But a lot of the time, we have to sit in the hard feelings. Learn how to feel through them. Or really reflect on what we can do better next time, or how to move forward in a responsible manner keeping our peace and safety top-of-mind.

Not the self-sabotaging tendencies we as a whole tend to gravitate toward.

If it’s due to something or someone we can’t control, how will you show up when it shows up in your life again?

We may not be able to “undo” people, situations, life… But we can figure out how to redo the things we’ve done. Better, more incrementally, and with grace and responsibility for ourselves, our actions, and our feelings.