Past is Past

In the Last Mock CAT, I had an RC about past influencing the present. This got me thinking about how much does the past influences present or how much should it influence the present or how well can we differentiate between them. Have heard people saying get over your past, Oh thats past now think about the future, why do u wanna still live in the past? But can one really ignore the past as if it never happened?, can one wipe out the slate clean and start again ? What i personally believe is one can never really erase the past though one might put up an act as if he never lived it but the fact that he lived that moment remains. The actions of the past does have a great influence on the present and similarly the actions of the present will have a huge influence in the way one's future shapes up. There is logical connection between all the three. Have heard people saying that "Why I am like this ? Why this is happening to me ?Why do I feel this way? " not able to explain their actions, not able to rationalize their emotions. When one does not find answers to such questions, in most cases he just blames it on fate, saying its out of his control, he is just a pawn and takes the easy way out. In such a case he does not give importance to the facts which will help him answer these questions but just relies on the crutches provided by entitites like fate, god etc. But i believe careful introspection of one's own self will answer all these questions. I don believe in denying the past because that would be equivalent to faking reality. Past is Past ,A is A, you denying the fact does not mutate the fact, the fact remains you consciously choose to acknowledge it or ignore it.