# The Grand Life Do-Over



## AngryBarryFTW (Dec 9, 2011)

If you could go back in time and choose a different path would you? what would you change. 

I'm 21, my biggest regret is I bullsh!tted my way through high school and didnt give college any thought because i couldnt. I started off so bad in High School it would take a miracle to get anywhere. By the time i got into 12th grade i had been to 5 schools in 4 years (3 in GA and 2 in PA) so i just decided to drop out and get my GED. which to my surprise was extremely easy. I immediately went in to a community college in which i was at the top off my class and then i decided to move to NYC. if i could do it all over i would have actually tried in school...and maybe did more


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## DesertMedic66 (Dec 9, 2011)

I'm 19 years old right now and as for me I wouldn't change anything. Yeah I missed out on some great things. But I am happy with who and where I am right now. There is no telling where I would be if I went back and changed things. 

I didn't push myself in high school. I just took the easy classes. My life at that time revolved around the fire service. I don't plan on going to college and get degrees, that's just not who I am. My views are different from alot of people's on this site but that's how I was raised and who I am.


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## usalsfyre (Dec 9, 2011)

Medical school instead of medic school. That's about it for me.


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## Anjel (Dec 9, 2011)

I would of went straight to EMT class instead of a semester for one program, 2 semesters in another school for a different focus, then a semester for medical assisting. 

I kept searching for what I wanted, and nothing felt quite right. 

I just kept telling myself I wasn't strong enough for EMS. I wish I would of had more faith in myself.


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## Veneficus (Dec 9, 2011)

Anjel1030 said:


> I would of went straight to EMT class instead of a semester for one program, 2 semesters in another school for a different focus, then a semester for medical assisting.
> 
> I kept searching for what I wanted, and nothing felt quite right.
> 
> I just kept telling myself I wasn't strong enough for EMS. I wish I would of had more faith in myself.



Why is searching for what you want regretful if you didn't know what it was to begin with?

That sounds like success to me.


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## SSwain (Dec 9, 2011)

I failed to get into the Marine Corps due to a slight medical condition. I never thought I could try again, or work with the recruiters to see if I could try again.
My HS years were a wasted time for me...I should have applied myself better. My plan was 20+ years in the Corps, and them something in Police work after that.
I'd have 20+ yrs in by now.....

However, I wound up becoming a mechanical engineer, got married to the best woman ever, and have two very cute kids. I'd say my life is better now because I DIDN'T get into the Marines.

No regerets, just some obligatory laments.


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## Sasha (Dec 9, 2011)

My life is full of regrets. Too many to list. I've really been an idiot and done a number on myself.

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## fortsmithman (Dec 9, 2011)

I wish I would have done my EMS training after I finished high school which was in the mid to late 1980's instead of in 2008.


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## Shishkabob (Dec 9, 2011)

Not been so damn shy growing up.   That really is my biggest regret.


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## medic417 (Dec 9, 2011)

I'd have been stopping billy goat gruff and lived under a bridge.


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## WhiskeySix5 (Dec 9, 2011)

My biggest regret, is not realizing that I would grow up to regret some of my decisions, until after I grew up... and realized I really regretted them. :unsure:


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## usafmedic45 (Dec 9, 2011)

I'd have not gone in the military, not gotten involved with my daughter's mother nor the sociopathic ex-girlfriend I've been dealing with lately and I would have completed school by now.  Then again, if I had done that approach, I wouldn't have Kat in my life most likely and therefore, I guess it was all worth it in the end.


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## abckidsmom (Dec 9, 2011)

Without having done the things I regret, I wouldn't be the person I am.  

I do wish I had appreciated more the time I had when we were newly married with no kids.  Instead I squandered that time being a negative, hateful person.  Now, I'm just all the more thankful for a positive mental attitude that shows up each day as a miracle from God.


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## 18G (Dec 9, 2011)

usafmedic45 said:


> I'd have not gone in the military, not gotten involved with my daughter's mother nor the sociopathic ex-girlfriend I've been dealing with lately and I would have completed school by now.  Then again, if I had done that approach, I wouldn't have Kat in my life most likely and therefore, I guess it was all worth it in the end.



So we've led similar lives... lol.


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## fast65 (Dec 9, 2011)

It's tough to say, I'm only 21 so I haven't had much time for regrets. But I would say never going out with my ex, or anyone for that matter. And to start thinking about medical school earlier in life.


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## AngryBarryFTW (Dec 9, 2011)

i wanted to be a pediatric oncologist but i wasnt patient enough for school i was always about the quick money


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## usafmedic45 (Dec 9, 2011)

AngryBarryFTW said:


> i was always about the quick money



So how the hell did you wind up in EMS? :unsure:


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## FourLoko (Dec 9, 2011)

It's best not to think about it. But you're 21?  And you, 19 year old, shut it. You're still super young and unless you've been a criminal can do whatever at this point.

I'd go back and become a LEO at age 20.5. That or choose a "real" college major like Biology.


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## fast65 (Dec 9, 2011)

FourLoko said:


> And you, 19 year old, shut it.



It doesn't matter what age, people have lived different lives and even 19 year olds can have regrets. There are things that they would like to do over, even though they may have plenty of time to go down a different path. Perhaps you should think about that before being so disrespectful. 


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## Sasha (Dec 9, 2011)

FourLoko said:


> It's best not to think about it. But you're 21?  And you, 19 year old, shut it. You're still super young and unless you've been a criminal can do whatever at this point.
> 
> I'd go back and become a LEO at age 20.5. That or choose a "real" college major like Biology.



Age has nothing to do with it. I'm 23 but have a ton of life changing regrets. Your child hood and young adulthood might have been sunshine and roses but that doesn't mean everyone's was. 

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## SSwain (Dec 9, 2011)

One of my regrets was NOT going with a certain girl and her girlfriend for the weekend 20-ish years ago. Years later she confided in me she was trying to have a threeway with the two of us.

I know it sounds like a "Dear Penthouse..." type of thing...but I swear on my life it is true.


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## mycrofft (Dec 9, 2011)

*OP, I was 22 and had to ask myself those questions.*

With the help of a good marriage, and the support of our parents from 1500 miles away, we have done ok 37 and a half years into our union.

If I could change the past I would have knocked down my IQ a few points and put myself into a private school rather than LA Unified. Then I might have stuck it through college the first time and not taken the seven year detour I needed (military=>original GI Bill=>college=>career I sort of liked) to make up for it once I quit school, worked at a factory and got married, all before I was 21.

Pick what you want, find out what's close to it, chart a path to that, then go for it. Leave the shiney things for later.


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## firetender (Dec 9, 2011)

Terrific thread OP and all of you, thank you!

This one got me going, so I blogged all over it, here.


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## CritterNurse (Dec 9, 2011)

If I knew then what I know now...

I would have skipped getting that BS degree at that expensive private university and just gone straight to the Vet. Tech. degree at the state university I got into after spending 4 years trying to find any job in the field my BS degree was in, and coming up with nothing.

I would not have listened to my high school guidance councillor who encouraged me to go to that expensive private university and enroll in that useless BS degree program when I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up. That degree program was supposedly "the next big thing".


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## bigbaldguy (Dec 9, 2011)

I would have turned left.


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## usafmedic45 (Dec 9, 2011)

bigbaldguy said:


> I would have turned left.


.....at Albuquerque.


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## IanN1 (Dec 10, 2011)

You're 21? 

Wow, you're pretty darn young, buddy!

And even if you're 50 and having these same thoughts, guess what? You bring it up to someone who's 70 and they'll probably say something like, 

"Settle down there, tiger. You're still young. Give yourself a break and enjoy your life."


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## Handsome Robb (Dec 10, 2011)

FourLoko said:


> It's best not to think about it. But you're 21?  And you, 19 year old, shut it. You're still super young and unless you've been a criminal can do whatever at this point.
> 
> I'd go back and become a LEO at age 20.5. That or choose a "real" college major like Biology.



Get over yourself. I'm 22 and have done plenty of things wrong. Would I change it? Absolutely not. I learned something from every one of my life choices.

Don't be a ****. Just because you're older than us doesn't mean that you are better and can talk down to us. Go be a cop, you obviously don't like EMS from all your posts on here.


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## abckidsmom (Dec 10, 2011)

usafmedic45 said:


> .....at Albuquerque.




We considered turning left at Albuquerque,  but it was just too scary.  We turned right.


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## Sasha (Dec 10, 2011)

abckidsmom said:


> We considered turning left at Albuquerque,  but it was just too scary.  We turned right.



At least you didn't get stuck in the roundabout. 

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## HelloChello (Dec 10, 2011)

I regret not spending more time with my Dad before he passed away when I was 16. I also regret not taking more pictures of him...or recording him playing the guitar and singing.  Sometimes it's hard to remember what he sounded like. 

However, as far as regrets go, those are pretty mild. I try not to regret much in life. Just live and learn. ^_^


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## FourLoko (Dec 10, 2011)

NVRob said:


> Get over yourself. I'm 22 and have done plenty of things wrong. Would I change it? Absolutely not. I learned something from every one of my life choices.
> 
> Don't be a ****. Just because you're older than us doesn't mean that you are better and can talk down to us. Go be a cop, you obviously don't like EMS from all your posts on here.



I'm not better or talking down. If I was then I wouldn't have had regrets and would have chosen the "ideal"path long ago. I'd be happy to go back 4 years or so.

I do like EMS, I just don't like the meager pittance they get away with paying us. It's not slave labor but it's pretty pathetic.


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## Lunah (Dec 10, 2011)

No regrets, in general. My career path has been diverse and varied, but I've learned that most of my life experiences thus far have been beneficial. I probably could have done without that second marriage (or even the first), but I learned from that, too. (Freaking psychos. Geez.) If I had to pick one thing, I probably would have gone back to school sooner ... I got my first Associates degree (liberal arts/journalism) in 1992, and didn't go back to school and get my EMT-B until 1999. I continued on at the same community college for my second Associates degree (paramedic), and finished that up in 2003. Big gap in schooling there! Oh well ... no matter. The timing of everything else seemed to work out well as far as RN/BSN/Army.

Oh! I seriously wouldn't have bought my house in Virginia in 2006 if I could travel back in time and undo anything. $60K in equity, down the drain... can't sell it now. Fortunate to have renters in it since I'm stationed in Georgia!


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## Nerd13 (Dec 13, 2011)

Much like many people in this thread I don't regret the things I have done because they've made me who I am. If I could change something I guess I would have skipped the 2 years I wasted at a trade school passing itself off as a college before I went to a real university. I don't use my degree in the traditional sense but I learned so much in the process of getting it. I feel like the trade school just delayed me getting my degree and then changing my mind and getting into EMS even more. I guess going to that college made me realize that I was smart enough to compete at a major university so I can't even find a reason to regret it. That's the way mistakes in our past work. If you didn't make them you didn't learn from them.


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## mycrofft (Dec 13, 2011)

*Left at Albequer...Albeque...New Mexico?*


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## mycrofft (Dec 13, 2011)

*Not regretting things because they made one as one is today...*

That can be one definition of sociopathy, or of reaching nirvana. I am close to that, but still I'd hate to have to pass a reception line of the people I've slighted or accentually screwed over to get to the Pearly Gates from Fiddlers' Green.


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## Underoath87 (Dec 14, 2011)

Well, I kinda wish I had earned a bachelor's degree in nursing instead of history the first time around.  But it's not a huge deal, since this way I'll get to experience college (girls) all over again 

To me, it's more about the journey than the destination.


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## WhiskeySix5 (Dec 14, 2011)

FourLoko said:


> I do like EMS, I just don't like the meager pittance they get away with paying us. It's not slave labor but it's pretty pathetic.



Nothing has changed with regards to this. I started in 1987, worked off and on since then in the military, volly and paid rigs...

When paid, the pay sucks, but then what other job lets you sleep, or read, or watch TV, or play Xbox like the kids at the station do while being paid said "pittance".

I mean, you could be sitting in a cubicle, with the man watching over you all the time, creating spreadsheets, or sitting in boring corporate meetings in your suit and tie, praising all the stupid ideas your boss came up with, working 70 hour weeks, 5 days a week... no thanks!

I would rather be broke and happy, than rich and miserable!


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## ARose (Jan 7, 2012)

I took too damn long getting a pretty much in the bag gig on an FD, and by the time I got on the Dept, my husband had to deploy and I have to move. 
I'm moving to GA (basic unfriendly??) in March, with only 3 months in the field. 
I was too preoccupied with money to realize that, at 26, I have to rest of my life to be financially secure and I should have jumped in w both feet years ago. 
Now it's my husbands career that's in the front seat. Not mine. 
But, if I chose to stay here, I'd lose my husband and never leave my hometown. 
The choice is pretty much "a duh"....


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## mycrofft (Jan 8, 2012)

*A Rose.*

"Join Spouse" is rarely a lot of fun if you are rooted in, but it can work. My wife and I leapfrogged (I worked two jobs and she went to school, then she worked and I went to a twice-longer school) and things worked out. We also luckily diode not fight over money (silly to with as little as we often had) and since we had different talents and tastes, we have some sort of division of labor.
PS: the money: never lose sight of it but be realistic. Looking back, if it wasn't for inheritance and some pre-tax saving we ell into, after the seven year detour in schooling, I would not be retired now nor wold my wife be retiring in 1.5 years. If we'd saved more sooner we'd both be retired now.


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## DrParasite (Jan 8, 2012)

SSwain said:


> One of my regrets was NOT going with a certain girl and her girlfriend for the weekend 20-ish years ago. Years later she confided in me she was trying to have a threeway with the two of us.
> 
> I know it sounds like a "Dear Penthouse..." type of thing...but I swear on my life it is true.


I believe it.  We all have stories about opportunities missed.  and sometimes opportunities that were capitalized on, even better if you remember your camera that night  

lets see what changes I would make to the road that was taken.....

in 2004, I would have applied for a per diem position working for Jersey City EMS, and would have gotten my Paramedic cert by now, a full time spot as well, and been a senior Paramedic or looking at a supervisor position. 

Probably would have applied to my current job about 3-5 years sooner too.  Or I would have skipped college and applied to my current employer 10 years ago, and moved to the local big city years ago and taken the state civil service test years ago to become a career FF in NJ

in 2000, while I was in college, I would have applied for a per diem EMT position at the local city 911 provider, for $7 an hour, instead of signing up for the college volunteer ambulance squad (which ran out anyone who came in with real, non-college EMS experience).

I would have taken the city service exam while in college, and tried to become a city FF where I went to school.  

would have not accumulated so many speeding tickets in my youth.

If I stayed in college, I would have double majored in IS & Nursing, instead of IS and history.  And I would have made this decision Freshman year of college, not junior year. 

But then I wouldn't have had all the fun and life experiences that led me to where I am today.


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## ARose (Jan 8, 2012)

DrParasite said:


> But then I wouldn't have had all the fun and life experiences that led me to where I am today.



Exactly


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## R99 (Jan 9, 2012)

I would have never gotten involved with the ambulance service, I've had some great times but the toll it's, taken is not worth it, even if I count the one or two  "saves""


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## NomadicMedic (Jan 10, 2012)

This is funny. I think about this kind of stuff... a alot.

I find my self daydreaming about the roads I traveled to get to where I am now, and while I made some royal F'ups... well, I'm 41 now, and I can say that my biggest regret is not making my marriage work. I still love and miss my ex every day. I also regret not becoming a medic sooner. Like 20 years ago. 

I regret that I've spent time trying to escape my past rather than live for the present.

I had some amazing experiences and most of them live fondly in my memory, but I still curse the day I ended my marriage.


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## ARose (Jan 10, 2012)

n7lxi said:


> I had some amazing experiences and most of them live fondly in my memory, but I still curse the day I ended my marriage.



This hit home. My husband and I hit a hard wall this past fall (mostly all my doing) the only thing that kept me from leaving him was my best friend told me that in a month I would regret it and I would never find anyone as amazing as my husband. 

I have anxiety attacks over how badly I messed things up, but he stood with me and today he sent me several links (unprompted) to Medic programs to the base I'm about to move to, as well as financial options for the two of us to look into.  
He wants me to succeed as much as anyone else in this field, I forget that.


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## R99 (Jan 10, 2012)

Somebody said it's a funny old world, he was right despite knowing too much

All I can say is learn from whatever "mistakes" you make and try not to worry about what might have been, I could have done lots of things different and I am glad I didn't do them now

Well there are two exceptions to that, I can honestly say one will probably stay with me until my last day on earth, that may change and it nay not but when all is said and done and darkness comes we and we alone have to live with our decisions and sometimes that makes us very troubled people.

I guess the trick is not letting it consume you .... stupid ambulance service, so what if one or two people walk the earth because of me, like that helps in the wee small hours


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## Vetitas86 (Mar 24, 2012)

Honestly? I'm 25, so you people who say living with no regrets is how you do things? Get a damn life.

If you're living worth anything, you
A) end up regretting something
B) will end up regretting something.

For me, its a few things. I had a friend who went to drug rehab three separate times. She never asked for help, but I know now that I should've been there.

I've mostly fallen out of touch with one of my closest friends. Working on getting back together, but its tough. Partially because I'm in Texas, he's in California, and we're both constantly busy.

Biggest one? Wish I'd sucked it up in college more. I was pre-med from day one. Wanted to work in emergency med. I may still do it, but there are issues with it at this point in my life.

Point is, saying you don't have regrets is like saying you don't have a belly button. We may not be able to see if you're lying or oblivious, but we have a good feeling.

Unless of course you're wearing a bikini.


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## homingmissile (Mar 24, 2012)

Vetitas86 said:


> Point is, saying you don't have regrets is like saying you don't have a belly button. We may not be able to see if you're lying or oblivious, but we have a good feeling.



Well, I consider regrets to be things that plague the mind constantly. Personally, when I say I have no regrets I mean to say I've come to terms with missed opportunities and past mistakes.


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## Tigger (Mar 25, 2012)

I wish I went to college with a better since of direction. I spent my whole first year messing around and taking classes that sounded interesting. Now I am behind the 8 ball trying to get all of the BSN requirements out of the way before I graduate next year.

But if I knew I wanted a nursing degree or something like that, I wouldn't have ended up where I am, I wouldn't have an incredible job in sports medicine, and I would not be in New Zealand now. One way or another I'll get to where I want to be.


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## Aprz (Mar 25, 2012)

I actually know somebody that's a "test tube baby", and they don't have a belly button. It's weird!

Yeh, if I could do it over again, I would have done better in school. I bombed all of elementary school, middle school, and high school. I'm lucky to have even passed; I almost didn't (for all three of them). Though I wonder if I would have gotten into EMS still if I did well in school. When I see people that I knew from high school and before, I'm always embarrassed thinking about my past self. I hope they don't remember me, but they usually do. I also would have gotten haircuts more regularly, shaved more regularly, take a shower in the morning instead of at night, use cologne and deodorant, brush my teeth, not reuse cloths. Wasn't very hygienic either. So embarrassing.


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