Why do we never know what we have until it's gone?

Question

I've been away at college for 2 years, working at my job the whole time. I never did anything special, I just came to work everyday with a good attitude and didn't complain. Now that I am leaving Im realizing how much people actually respect me there and how much fun I actually had, but it took me to leave in order to figure that out. My question is why did I never stop and take the time or really look at things and realize how good it was? Why do I now, after pretty much hating it for the last year, want to stay? My girlfriend left for europe for 2 months and I feel the closest to her I've ever felt, why can't I just live in the moment and enjoy life as it comes?

Answer 1

you can, why aren't you?

Answer 2

We take things for granted.  

Answer 3

Don't take anything for granted.

Big Yellow Taxi  

by Joni Mitchell

  

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

With a pink hotel, a boutique

And a swinging hot spot

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

They took all the trees

Put 'em in a tree museum

And they charged the people

A dollar and a half just to see 'em

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

Hey farmer farmer

Put away that DDT now

Give me spots on my apples

But leave me the birds and the bees

Please!

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

Late last night

I heard the screen door slam

And a big yellow taxi

Took away my old man

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

Answer 4

everyone will say "you dont appreciate it" or "take things for granted" and that bull...

thats just cliche.

its really because you were just enjoying the time you had, if you're sitting there thinking about it you'll never enjoy it. and you miss or "realize what you had" because you dont have it anymore not because you didnt enjoy it. you just have to accept the fact that everything good ends... unless you're rich.

Answer 5

It is because we take avery thing for granted or thing that its going to be there for ever, but in reality thigs go away very quickly and we don't know that we had until we have lost it, its out way of thinking in this society of ours.  

Answer 6

That's just the way life works. It's fantastic that you enjoyed yourself; that's more than a lot of people can say for themselves. Twisted as this sounds, it's actually better that you didn't stop to think about how great things were; it means that you were truly enjoying yourself and for a short time, you had a glimpse of true happiness, untainted by worry, regret, or wistfulness.

The truth is that, if you had stopped to think about how great things were, and decided you wanted to stay, you might not have had the chance to look back happily on some great memories. I hate to sound too cliche here, but it's better to have loved and lost to have never loved at all. You now have cherishable memories to look back on, instead of nothing at all to be grateful about. That's more than a lot of people can say.

Answer 7

When something is around you all the time it's like it stops vibrating and you forget that it's there. Life is a vibration of off and on, so when something is on all the time, it becomes non-existent, and when it goes off all of a sudden do we recognize that it was there and wait for it to come on again and so we miss it.

Answer 8

...the quest to have more is innate in all of us...

Answer 9

it's something that's completely natural of us. it's like smelling a scent around you and after a while you dont smell it anymore but if you go away and come back you'll smell it. i guess it's the way all our sense are. you have to really train yourself or be religous in order to be grateful everyday for what you have.

but at least now you know how great your life is right? =]