Never Forget.

Sometimes I sit here and wonder about the thoughtless things people say. The words of advice that are thrown out without thought or care, mostly because they are cliche and easy to use. The quote that bites me a little harder each time I read it is "The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.”
I'm honestly quite sick of people telling me to let go of my past, and just forget about it, and that if I do so I will be okay.
I wonder if anyone has ever really thought about what they were saying...
I know its not good to incessantly obsess over the past, but to completely forget about it in order to have the "brightest future" would be completely arrogant. Forgetting your past especially the failures and heartaches is the worst thing you can do to yourself. If you forget, how many more times will you fail, how many more times will your heart be wrenched. You learn from your past. You hurt from it to help yourself. You would not be who you are today without remembering your failures. You would rarely if ever accel without your past there to guide you. I've screwed up royally several times in my life, and I'd like to consider myself a wise and well rounded person now because of it. If I had forgiven myself and forgotten what I did to not only myself but others I would be a train wrecked nobody stuck in a small town ruining lives left and right. Everytime I get slightly upset thinking about the past and the things that have happend it never fails that a friend comes along and says "It's the past just forget about it and you'll be fine..." Quite frankly friends... if I forget about it I'll be back at square one. So I guess what I'm getting at after this perpetual rant is that the brightest future will always be based on a remembered and learned from past. Dwelling drags. Remembering rebuilds. Because in the end forgetting is losing a piece of yourself.