Regrets?

[Gare]

Jase made a rather interesting thread a while ago asking everyone about their plans for the next 10 years. That thread looked at the future, which is cool, so how about we examine the past for a change?

Do you have any regrets in life? Small or big, this can be related to almost everything. Well, except for gaming, I guess. We really don't care about you regretting your decision to sacrifice that dude in Mass Effect. (Joking aside, spammy/retarded replies will be deleted). Anyway, go ahead and look at certain parts of your life and try to explore various "what if" scenarios. Would you have done anything differently? Would you have become a different kind of person if you had done something different in your past? To what extent do you think certain decisions can shape your personality? And so on.

Not much else to say, so go ahead and discuss.

[Dr Mario]

Lets go with '90% of the choices I made since leaving school'. I have royally screwed the pooch in countless ways over the last 6 years.

[Marche100]

I'll go with some of the choices I made in school. I really was a slacker and didn't care at all about school for quite a few years, and it really hurt me later on. I was lucky that I had enough time left in my school years to recover from it, but I really wish that I could go back and tell myself to put some effort forward.

[Andy_Jerk]

I could choose to keep regretting things or be more like machine that moves forward without pondering what cannot be changed. Ugh, that's why adults always seemed so uncool.

[Beelzebub]

I really truly regret not just finishing high school when I was supposed to. I dropped out when I realized I was going to have to redo my Junior year. Well, the extensive drinking wasn't really keeping me in school either. I ended up running around with a crazy group of punk rockers. Ended up drinking all of the time, partying, doing drugs. I really had stopped giving a shit about everything. Finally, one time I was hanging out with my "crew" and an altercation happened and one person got cut really bad, and another ended up getting stabbed a couple times. Some real crazy shit went down. I decided then that I would distance myself from them. So, I didn't call any of them, and broke off all ties. That all happened when I was 16.

I had one or two run-ins with a couple people from that group since then. Nothing too bad though, luckily I moved on when I did though.

There's been some other smaller regrets since then. Like when I was 17 and quit my job after my first paycheck. Then went in on 2 greyhound tickets with a good friend of mine, to Las Vegas. The plan was to stay with my friend's friend, until we found jobs. Well, suffice to say it didn't work out. When we got to his friend's apartment, we found it to be empty. Long story short, we were homeless for a while, I lost my ID, ran out of money, etc... Anyway, it was a real fun adventure. I eventually got given a ticket back home, my friend's parent's ended up buying it for me. So, I finally got home, after being down there for about a month or so. I paid the price for it, I ended up losing pretty much everything I owned.

I might share some more regrets later, but there's a couple to chew on.

Really though, who doesn't have regrets? The thing is that it's better to regret something you have done, then to regret something you haven't done.

[LeftyGuitar]

Well I have my share of regrets. I wish I would have did more extra activities while I was in school. I goofed off, I still graduated and everything, but because I did the bare minimum for everything, I didn't get very far. I'm still stuck where I'm at. I have trouble finding jobs. I also regret quitting a job I had as a delivery driver. If I wasn't so stupid, I'd still have it. Now I can only wait for things to pick up, if they do.

[Raype]

Not really any serious regrets. There's plenty of shit I'm unhappy about. But such is life.

Should I have thought about what I was doing with school a hell of a lot more and figured out something better for my time? Yeah, probably. But I learned plenty of things through this experience. Odd as it is, I think I'm happy with the terribleness that ensued simply because it helped me develop as a person. Had I decided differently there's no proof I'd be any happier. More financially secure and less depressed about the whole thing, sure. Well, in theory. It's entirely possible that with some of the options I'd have had that I'd just end up in a similar place. If I had stuck with the path I had poorly chosen, I'd most likely be absolutely miserable right now. I certainly wasn't in a pleasant mood when I finally decided it wasn't worth it. Eh, it was character building. And, who knows, maybe there's still a way yet to turn all this around. I haven't given up on finding the right career for me, several decent ones have come along in recent years. Once one manages to "click" perfectly and not suddenly make itself impossible somehow, I likely won't think of any of this at all.

Should I have been nicer to some family and friends? Probably. But hey, who doesn't treat everyone around them like shit for extended periods of time when life gets rough? In the end, it worked out fairly well for most of my circle of friends and I get along with family better than I ever have. Had things worked out differently? I doubt anything would change. I'd have probably been less hasty to leave everyone behind, but I consider that an important step in my adulthood. Sooner or later friends grow apart anyway. If it weren't as abrupt as it was, it'd have come over the course of several years. Ultimately, they'd probably be little more to me than they are now: names that occasionally pop up in my life with some information on what they've been up to lately.

About the only thing I can think of that I'd probably have liked to change would be that I kind of wish I enjoyed my youth more than I did. I was generally far too focused on my future or doing the right thing to simply enjoy the present. Less time with the games and books, perhaps. Definitely less time trying to grow up and more time creating memories of simply fucking around. I really could've done with less stressing out and being depressed in my teen years. But again, altering that part of myself would probably have a drastic effect on who I am. And being the serious sort has lead to me being a bit less like that later on in life, with enough of it remaining in my personality that I can usually keep on top of things when I must. Going through this has taught me to cope with the difficult things in life, and has shown me that I need to spend a lot less time with my personal issues and a lot more time trying to simply live. I owe much of my sense of humor to those days. You enjoy laughter a lot more when you know what it's like to go without it.

I sort of wish that I had gotten to know some people in my life that are no longer around a little better. But I'm not sure if it's a real "regret" I have. Surely any time spent with that would have come at the cost of other relationships I've had in my life. And I rarely if ever regret those.

I might be unhappy with where I am in life, but that doesn't necessarily mean I want to undo things. I just want a better future than where I am currently. I tend to feel it's more productive to improve who I am now rather than trying to do that retroactively through some manner of past alteration. Yeah, my past sucks, but it's my past, dammit. I wouldn't change it for anything.

[Andy_Jerk]

Well if I'm going to answer this honestly I would have to say I regret how I have PERCEIVED certain things; mainly that I confused image with substance. I was always told that I was naturally bright and good looking and blah blah blah. But if a kid starts thinking they're automatically going to make it in life without any solid prerequisites, there is the potential for one fucked up adult. I've enjoyed it though, and I have quite a sense of humor. Like Ray said, and I agree about my own life: it's my past, and I had fun even if it looked weird from the outside.

[Supreme Warrior]

Regrets eh? well virtually 99.9% of my life, too many to list

[Jase]

I used to have them, now i don't, I look at them as lessons in life.

I used to regret not doing anything halfway decent with my schooling, and it fucked me over hardcore,working dead end jobs, but now the chance has come back up to do something with my life, so 100% goes in, if it wasn't for me half assing around and then seeing what the results of that are like, and its shit...

I used to regret being over weight in high school, i missed alot of high school experiences, like i would always be the funny fat guy, which wasn't that bad, but i was never the one going off to fuck sluts in the bushes.
Though it did teach me a wonderful lesson, when i did come back fit as shit, its funny to watch people change, sluts that wouldn't give you the time of day, would be all over me, and id learnt that they were nothing more then that, sluts.
I was always picky about who id be in a relationship with and what not, which i think was a very very good thing, while my mates are still going through GF's like its going out of fashion, I've found someone special.

The only major one i cant seem to find a lesson in, is the regret of not spending more time with my father, i used to see him as a angry man that wouldn't have the time of day for me, I'd always be alot closer to my mother, but now i see that it in fact was my mother that was crazy, and I wish i had more time with my dad.
I mean he used to treat me like shit, but when you look at how his father treated him, there wasn't a great influence there...

Most people ASSUME, I regret getting drug fucked, in all honest I don't, its a life lesson again, I'm much closer to friends as a result of it, so much so I now know which people will always be there for me no matter what I do, and i consider them family.

I just think, we are all to young to have regrets, its something to look back at when your old, but even then, regret nothing, life's one hell of a trip, enjoy every moment, because you don't want to spend it wondering about the what if's.

[Synthetik]

Regrets? I've had a few.

But then again... too few to mention.

[Andy_Jerk]

The only major one i cant seem to find a lesson in, is the regret of not spending more time with my father

I'm really lucky to be able to spend time with my Dad. I regret how hostile I was towards him when he came back into my life; I just wasn't accustomed to deferring to anyone, but your parents are always your parents.

[Deadpool]

I regret not following my labmate to her dormroom because I was feeling tired and hopped onto the next bus home.

[luffy4]

my regrets are usually stupid like "why didnt i buy that" or "why did i smash this"

[Rok124]

i feel an anime moment coming on


since im still fairly young, i wouldn't say ive gone through enough to say i have regrets

so really, i have no regrets