x-g.o.p.er
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 09:03 PM
Original message |
You can go back and change ONE decision in your life |
|
What is it?
Marry someone? Divorce someone? Tell someone yes? No?
For me, I had an opportunity to play division III college football. I wasn't a very good quarterback in high school, but this coach thought I was. They don't offer scholarships at D-III, but I had all the financial arrangements worked out through grants and loans, and if I had one thing to do over again, that would be it.
But then again, if I go play college football, I don't enlist in the Sir Forc, don't get stationed where my future wife was, and don't marry her.
But I firmly believe that had I gone and played college ball, I still would have met her. Somehow.
|
Yavin4
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 09:07 PM
Response to Original message |
1. Not Going To Graduate Business School |
|
I went to a horrible school, and it ruined 10 years of my life.
|
calico1
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:54 PM
Response to Reply #1 |
51. I would not have allowed my parents and |
|
relatives to strong arm and pressure me into majoring in business. I would have become a vet like I had wanted to and wish I had become.
|
Ariana Celeste
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 09:18 PM
Response to Original message |
|
:)
I've learned a little bit from everything I've been through, and I wouldn't be me without all of the events in my life. :hi:
|
Gold Metal Flake
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 09:22 PM
Response to Original message |
|
I was way on the wrong side of THAT one!
|
Deja Q
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 09:32 PM
Response to Original message |
EstimatedProphet
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 09:33 PM
Response to Original message |
|
OK, marry my first wife. She was nasty.
|
madeline_con
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 09:34 PM
Response to Original message |
Robb
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 09:37 PM
Response to Original message |
7. Oddly enough, nothing. |
|
I think although the road SUCKED, everything I have now depended upon the tiny little fuckups that together, make up my life. :D
|
Oeditpus Rex
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 09:43 PM
Response to Original message |
|
I wouldn't have accepted a job in this godforsaken town and moved here almost eight years ago. Life was pretty good before, and it's gone downhill ever since.
|
Kathryn STone
(229 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:08 AM
Response to Reply #8 |
Oeditpus Rex
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:12 AM
Response to Reply #30 |
|
There're godforsaken hellholes everywhere.
|
LostInAnomie
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 09:49 PM
Response to Original message |
9. Oooo... That is a tricky question. |
|
I can think of a bunch of things that I would have probably done differently but the natural extension of changing them would be to alter my present life drastically.
Here is a list though: 1. I would have kissed my first girlfriend (I was too shy). 2. I would have asked my best girl/friend to prom like we planned and fell in love (cause I had a huge crush on her). 3. I would have told my boss at my first job to fuck off and then walked out instead of putting up with his shit. 4. I would have told Abby how I felt about her before she started dating my friend. 5. I would have worked a lot harder my first two years of college (they were a huge drag on my GPA). 6. I would have broken up with my college girlfriend after 1.5 years instead of dragging it out for 3. 7. I would have spent a lot more time with my friends in college instead of wasting my time with my ex-girlfriend. 8. I would have drank a lot more in college. 9. I would have double checked the gate latch so my puppy wouldn't have went into the road and been hit. 10. I wouldn't have checked my mirror at the same time that car stopped short in front of me.
|
gristy
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 11:55 PM
Response to Reply #9 |
26. yeah, I rear ended someone after I had glanced in my mirror too |
|
I remember being taught in driver's ed to always be checking my mirrors. Bad advice! I always keep my eyes looking forward now. If someone's tailing me, I'd rather not even know.
|
Redstone
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 09:51 PM
Response to Original message |
10. I'd have listened when they told me: "Don't ride the skid." |
GoddessOfGuinness
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:18 AM
Response to Reply #10 |
|
:hug:
How was Mrs R's birthday?
|
xmas74
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 09:53 PM
Response to Original message |
11. I've made mistakes in my past |
|
but there is no way I'd change it. I'm afraid that all it would take is one small change and my little girl wouldn't be here w/ me today. I can't do it.
|
BlueIris
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 10:22 PM
Response to Reply #11 |
|
Edited on Wed Feb-01-06 10:28 PM by BlueIris
I guess.
I think of the one thing I'd change--meeting the ex. Yeah, I might still have my health, mental health and more of my career ambitions intact, but, but--I might not have been in a position to discover DU. Think up my novel. Other essential things.
|
xmas74
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 10:23 PM
Response to Reply #16 |
|
but if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have my daughter. I can't even change meeting him.
|
bigwillq
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 09:54 PM
Response to Original message |
|
to my parents. I didn't exactly do it in the most appropriate fashion but then again, there's no best way to do that, imo.
|
PassingFair
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 09:54 PM
Response to Original message |
13. Dropping out of college... |
|
Still regret it, but in hindsight, can see exactly why I did it. Shitty economy, HAD to get a full-time job, bad relationship.
My kids BETTER stay in school, even if I have to work nights at McDonald's to pay for it.
|
mdmc
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 01:17 PM
Response to Reply #13 |
57. ugh, I forgot about that regret... |
hfojvt
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 09:56 PM
Response to Original message |
|
turns out it was a hugh mistake, but I was too young to know better. Legend says I tried to delay it as long as possible, being two weeks late and over 10 pounds.
|
flvegan
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 10:04 PM
Response to Original message |
15. Not bought that dirt bike. Helped cost my best friend his life. |
|
My mom wouldn't let me have a dirt bike. Got one anyway (paper route). Kept it at my friend D's house. He got one from his folks. He launched over a hill that had no landing. He went down the side of an embankment, and into a busy street. He was hit by a van. He died right then and there. I was twelve or thirteen.
|
Elidor
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 10:28 PM
Response to Original message |
|
Fortunately, this is one I CAN change, though no school in this area offers a degree in my field, and most online degrees seem to be ripoffs.
|
LeftyMom
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 10:31 PM
Response to Original message |
19. I would be nicer to my sister as a child |
|
I was positively abusive to her when we were small. If I could change anything, that would be it.
|
momophile
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 01:00 AM
Response to Reply #19 |
41. Big sis, is that you? |
|
Oh... it's not. It's someone else's sister... My big sis was pretty mean sometimes, but I still love her.
|
LeftyMom
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 01:03 AM
Response to Reply #41 |
42. Mine still loves me too |
|
I'd understand if she hated me after the way I treated her but we're actually good friends now. :shrug:
|
Missy Vixen
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 10:33 PM
Response to Original message |
|
at the same time, the things I screwed up on are now the biggest lessons I learned.
Here's to learning from my mistakes. :toast:
Julie
|
NNadir
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 10:40 PM
Response to Original message |
21. The last time I saw my mother well, I was mean to her. |
|
I was just being a snotty kid.
I was home for a visit, and then I went off to California, not realizing that she would shortly contract a fatal brain tumor that would ruin her fabulous mind before I could speak to her again. Eventually, after months of child-like behavior, convulsions, pain and confusion she fell into a coma and died.
If I had one thing to do over, I would spend that last day together when she was well telling her how much I loved her and thanking for all she did for me and remarking on her kindness, her patience, her high ethics, her good will, her decency and her profound love. It was 30 years ago, and it still hurts that I never told her how much I loved her.
|
faithnotgreed
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:27 AM
Response to Reply #21 |
36. may i send a hug your way |
|
a very loving and mature response nnadir
much peace and love to you....
|
NNadir
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 08:43 AM
Response to Reply #36 |
Giant Robot
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 10:46 PM
Response to Original message |
22. I have many I think about |
|
Mainly marrying my first wife and her leaving me with a boatload of debt to handle. Or letting that one special girlfriend get away. Or fucking around instead of studying in my undergrad. But since the OP said one thing, I would spend every possible minute with my sainted father before he passed away. None of my other screw ups compares with missing him and wishing I could have just a few more minutes to tell him how much he meant to me, all he taught me, how I forgive any trespasses, and how much I just loved him.
|
Sacajawea
(797 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 10:47 PM
Response to Original message |
23. I would not flee medical school after three weeks. |
|
Felt I was in way over my head, that I didn't belong there, that they'd made a mistake in accepting me.
Really. Bad. Career. Move.
|
yellowdogintexas
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 11:41 PM
Response to Original message |
24. NOT marry my first husband. |
|
definitely.
I would have saved myself 13 years of feeling trapped in that relationship
Odd how a pretty good boyfriend and girlfriend can morph into a lousy married couple, isn't it?
My current spouse maintains that if I had left my ex earlier, I would most likely never have met HIM, so he is grateful that I put up with the ex as long as I did.
He has a point.
on a more trivial note, I would have joined the sorority my roommate was in; I might as well have since we lived with them and they gave me an honorary membership..every semester they told me all I had to do was sign up for rush and I was in but my mom was very dead set against it and I was afraid I might drop my grades etc. I wouldn't have dropped my grades and I would have had a great time..they were all great women!
|
JudyM
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Wed Feb-01-06 11:51 PM
Response to Original message |
25. Would've taken that full scholarship to grad school in Hawaii instead of |
|
going to Cleveland. Nothing against Cleveland, but that choice was waaay too pragmatic - just because the Cleve grad program was a lot better. I still haven't made it out to Hawaii.
|
XOKCowboy
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:01 AM
Response to Original message |
|
Never look back. Only forward. In life there is no reverse gear.
|
CaliforniaPeggy
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:02 AM
Response to Original message |
28. I can't change anything.....not ONE thing! |
|
I've made some horrendous mistakes, had awful failures, fallen in love when I shouldn't have......
But all these adventures, and all the good things too, make me who and what I am.....
And I would NOT change anything about me for anything.....
My mistakes have cost me a lot of grief, and tears....but they are part of me...
I cannot put up any walls around these things....So every now and then these events come back and bite me...
I can't help it...
I take what I can from them, and go forward, hopefully a better, wiser, kinder and more loving person.
|
dysfunctional press
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:07 AM
Response to Original message |
29. so many regrets to choose from... |
|
and i was hoping to save them up to ponder in my declining years...
suffice it to say, my virginity would have been sacrificed much earlier(as if i really had any say over it in the first place).
|
Shine
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:09 AM
Response to Original message |
31. I believe every life experience has taught me something worthwhile |
|
so I am not big on having regrets, because they imply having made a "MISTAKE" or having done something "WRONG"
The truth is, we're all doing the best we can, in any given moment.
I believe I am exactly where I need to be and that all my past choices have brought me to this place in time.
It's all good. :thumbsup:
|
progmom
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 11:27 AM
Response to Reply #31 |
47. i think this is an incredibly healthy perspective |
|
i totally agree
:thumbsup:
|
Shine
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 11:51 AM
Response to Reply #47 |
48. Cool, thanks, progmom. |
|
Life's too short to beat ourselves up. Let's enjoy what we have. :loveya:
|
fortyfeetunder
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:10 AM
Response to Original message |
|
Leaving another trail of broken hearts....LOL
:popcorn:
|
liberaltrucker
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:12 AM
Response to Original message |
33. Wouldn't have married my first wife |
CanuckAmok
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:31 AM
Response to Original message |
37. gone to a good school when I had the chance. |
|
I grew up poor, and my mom cleaned houses for a living. One of the elderly couples she worked for really liked me, and offered to pay my tuition at Ridley College, which is just about the best private elementary/high/prep school in Canada.
I was only nine, and I didn't like the prospect of changing schools (again), and being the only working-class kid at a very expensive school.
I declined their offer, and remained at an overcrowded, substandard public elementary school, where I did poorly.
Of course, if I knew then what I know now...............
|
GoddessOfGuinness
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:32 AM
Response to Original message |
38. If I changed anything it'd screw up something good... |
|
so I'd leave it alone, and accept as a gift the knowledge that comes from making mistakes.
|
Digit
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:47 AM
Response to Original message |
39. I would not have sold my bungalow in North Arlington for $280K in 1997 |
|
It was a 7 minute walk to Metro and within 3 years of being paid off. It kills me knowing it is worth a million bucks now. Just KILLS me. ...and here I sit in bumfuck NC surrounded by Republican imbeciles with a flat housing market and can't even afford to return home.
|
Wapsie B
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:58 AM
Response to Original message |
40. Another not getting married vote here. |
|
But we've got to play with the hand we've got now. Such is life.
|
XemaSab
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 01:39 AM
Response to Original message |
|
I would have RUN AWAY. :(
|
Aristus
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 01:45 AM
Response to Original message |
44. I wish I could have chosen to go into Medicine ten years earlier. |
|
Best career change I ever made, but it's tough starting over at 37.
|
pointblank
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 11:25 AM
Response to Original message |
46. I should have kept playing sports |
|
in high school instead of quitting after sophomore year to party excessively and should have gone straight to a four year college right away instead of fucking around at a community college for three years because of my idiot girlfriend at the time.
However, with that said I am very happy where I ended up!
|
Ramsey
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:21 PM
Response to Original message |
|
I had a chance to go to Australia and the South Seas on tour with my Glee Club.
Instead I stayed at school all summer working in the molecular biology lab, making a small stipend.
I made the decision for financial reasons and justified it my convincing myself that I'd have a good experience doing research that summer.
But my friends all had such a great time on the tour and still talk about it to this day, that I always regret not going.
It taught me never to let opportunities pass just over money, but to find a way to make things happen.
|
Fenris
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:53 PM
Response to Original message |
50. Not taking that German scholarship I was offered. |
LaraMN
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:56 PM
Response to Original message |
52. Not buying the stupid damn Dodge Neon. |
|
Everything in else in my life, good or bad, I needed.
|
liontamer
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:57 PM
Response to Original message |
53. I would have gone to buenos aires the summer after i finished college |
|
The change would have been a much needed shock to my system.
|
In_The_Wind
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 12:58 PM
Response to Original message |
54. Yes ~ There is a gentleman named Philip Younger ... |
|
He ask me to look him up 20 years after our break-up in 1979. I haven't done that yet.
|
riderinthestorm
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 01:01 PM
Response to Original message |
|
I was asked to marry my Qantas pilot SO but still believed in "true love" back then so I turned him down. I had lived with him for a year in Sydney and liked him well enough but I just didn't have any sparks flying and I honestly thought that was a "must have" thang for a marriage.
In retrospect I should have married him, gotten the Aussie dual citizenship and stuck around over there. Great friendships can evolve into love during marriage and I believe we would have been good together in the long haul.
Alas.
|
mdmc
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
|
Thu Feb-02-06 01:16 PM
Response to Original message |
56. oh, I am plagued by regrets |
|
How I treated my family when I was younger (I would have been nicer). Career moves (damn, I have not made a single good career move since 1996). Love (I was so lucky to get someone like her, how could I have fucked it up?). and politics (I should have run last year instead of banking on a con-dem to win).
|
DU
AdBot (1000+ posts) |
Sun May 05th 2024, 10:24 PM
Response to Original message |