The Grand Life Do-Over

[SSwain]

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.

 

[mycrofft]

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.

 

[firetender]

Terrific thread OP and all of you, thank you!

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

 

[CritterNurse]

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".

 

[bigbaldguy]

I would have turned left.

 

[usafmedic45]

I would have turned left.

.....at Albuquerque.

 

[IanN1]

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."

 

[Handsome Robb]

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.

 

[abckidsmom]

.....at Albuquerque.

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

 

[Sasha]

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.

Sent from LuLu using Tapatalk

 

[HelloChello]

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. ^_^

 

[FourLoko]

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.

 

[Lunah]

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!

 

[Nerd13]

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.

 

[mycrofft]

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

 

[mycrofft]

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.

 

[Underoath87]

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.

 

[WhiskeySix5]

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!

 

[ARose]

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"....

 

[mycrofft]

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.