If time could be refunded, would you ask for the hours or the person you were during them?

Asking for hours back is not the same as asking for the self back. Time you regret is usually attached to a version of you that was frightened, unformed, or in the wrong place, and what you actually want returned is that person’s freedom rather than the calendar space they occupied. The hours are gone either way; the question is what you think they cost you.

When you catch yourself mourning wasted years, ask which of the two you are mourning. If it is the person, the useful move is not accounting but repair: what that self needed and can still be given now. Regret aimed at time has nowhere to land, and regret understood as grief for a self does.