What do you regret?
 

I regret picking on Lisa Nesbit when we were 12. My friends made me do it. It wasn't me. I was experimenting with my personality. I made her feel bad. It has made me feel bad 100 times over since that time. Girls are not icky.

I regret most of my marriage.

I regret not cleaning myself up better when I was in college, because I think I could have gotten the chix.

I regret not playing more music in my life.

I think nearly every decision I made between 1980 and 1989 was wrong. Some were just plain bad wrong. College major, relationships, financial, you name it - wrong, bad, dumb.

Thank God for second chances - that's all I can tell you. :)

I don't have any regrets. I value every experience life has thrown at me and have enjoyed every moment good or bad.

Oh bullshit I regret quitting university, working in a time-wasting money-orientated profession for the last 4 years, and all of my past relationships. So, everything, really.

Major selection, the first college I went to, most of the relationships I've had, and how I've treated my friends in the past. I think, more than anything, I really wish I would have treated my friends as valuable as they really are and I really wish I knew why it never works that way.

Dammit, its too early to drink...

There's a lot of things I wish I had done instead of doing what I actually did but I can't say I really regret any of it.

I regret:

Behaving the way I behaved in College. I could have done well, but I decided that having fun was more important than grades.

Allowing myself to get to the weight I was at when I was at my heaviest.

Saying some pretty awful things to my high school sweetheart after we broke up. It was just uncalled-for.

The good news for me, I guess, is that 2 of the 3 up there are pretty easily correctable. Once the divorce is over and done, I'm gonna give college another shot. Yeah, it will be a bit more complicated with work and a son, but that makes it all the more imperative that I do something.

Losing weight proved very easy for me when my marriage fell apart. Lost 15 pounds in less than 2 weeks thanks to stress. Decided to make that a positive thing and started working out and watching my diet. I'm down 30 pounds now with 20 or so to go.

As far as the high school sweetheart thing, my 10-year reunion is coming up in a couple years. Maybe I'll get a chance to properly apologise.

I think everyone should regret just about everything from the 80s except the music. :p

As for myself ... I regret:

- Not pushing myself harder on the tennis court in high school. I took my talent for granted and let myself get too wrapped up in that contemporary ideology of "not taking things too seriously" during adolescence. I had the opportunity to go to the top in college, and I blew it because I thought it wasn't worth the effort. How much wasted time I spent during my learning years.

- Buying a Dell computer.

- Wasting too much of my life worrying about other people and what they think of me. Can't imagine how many decisions, choices, dilemmas would have gone over much easier and much better had I simply gone with what I believed to be what I truly wanted. Peer pressure is a bitch.

- Doing drugs. Nothing else in my life (except girls) has taken away from any sort of productivity that I pretend to have. It's a vicious thing too, because it's hard to get away once you've taken the plunge.

Honestly, there are some days when I regret damn near everything.

I regret not managing my money better back when I was a swinger... about the only smart thing I did with my money back then was to buy a house, but the rest of it I blew on fast cars, fast computers, fast... well, other fast stuff. If I'd saved just 1/4 of that "disposable" income each month, I'd have a pretty handsome savings by now.

When I was in Jr. High, I made the mistake of sticking up for a nerd in distress (I was a nerd myself, but not nearly as saturated in nerdiness as he). As a result, he became the unshakable tagalong friend. I gave him an honest chance, but his company was unbearable... after numerous attempts to cut him loose over several months, I resorted to a nasty verbal attack. It worked, and I don't know what else might have, but I always feel like shit when I think back on it. I think I regret the original-sticking-up-for-him and the eventual-unpleasant-dismissal just about equally.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Honestly, there are some days when I regret damn near everything.

Ouch. Remind me to thank this thread for a Tuesday full of nothing but positive thoughts. What a way to return from a three day weekend.

When I think about things I regret, it occurs to me that had those choices not been made and those events not happened, I would not be the person I am now. I'd be different.

Things I regret right now: my weight. If I could have a magic wand and change one thing, that would be it. It took 5 years to put it all on, and will take at least as long to take it off.

You can do it, OC. I felt the same way. Granted I kind of got a jumpstart, but all it takes is a commitment. Get out the old clothes and measure your progress by trying to get into em. I've found that to be a far better motivator than by looking at the numbers on the scale. how much you weigh really doesn't matter as much as how you see yourself. I still have a gut, but I can see its much smaller than it was, and that provides all the motivation I need to keep losing it. Commit to cut from your diet only the things that hurt you the most. In my case it was sugared soda and potatoes. I still crave french fries now and then, but a handful of almonds and a glass of iced tea kill that craving dead, and I feel better about myself afterwards. Now if only I could make myself quit smoking...

That's another thing I regret. Starting smoking in the first place. I went into it with eyes wide open, knowing addiction would follow easily.

And it won't take 5 years. It's surprisingly easy to lose that first 10 pounds, and while it gets more difficult after that, the little rewards like finding that you need a new pair of jeans because even your old ones are getting big, make it so worth it.

I regret NOT spending my childhood running through grass and mud and putting worms in my pockets...

Doing that now I would just feel stupid.

yeah, regrets are tricky. for every one i think of, i then think, "but then my life would be in a different place right now" and i change my mind about regretting it.

for example. i quit football in 10th grade. i still feel the urge to play when i watch it, but i think i'd be a different person if i had stayed.

i regret going to college for art, and quitting that after a year. but then, if i had stayed in, i'd never have met shelby.....or my 2 kids that would have never been born.

i regret killing that guy and living on the lamb for 16 years.....oh, wait that wasn't me.

i guess if i keep them recent, and limit them to little tiny regrets i could come up with a few, but....i doubt anyone cares that i wish i'd chosen decaff coffe last night instead of regular, so i'd gotten to sleep earlier. or that i will soon regret not getting the grill out and cleaning it up for jinx's use today.....and so on....

Incidentally, that bit was spoken in jest... I don't regret sticking up for him. My regret for not having done so would be much greater.

when i thought about the things i regret; the big things; they had one thing in common...i didn't follow my heart/gut/instinct*. IOW i had 2 or three options, one of which i felt was the right choice, and 1 or more that others, parents, friend etc. thought were better choices. and i went with someone else's idea of what was right. there are only a couple of times that this has (probably) affected the overall outcome of my life, but i do think about what it would have been like if i had _____'d instead. usually only when i am in a depressed mood. overall i feel like i am a very lucky person however in that i learned from these 'mistakes' and therefore want to teach my daughter to trust herself above all others (even me!) when it comes to something she feels is important.


*OK, so there have also been a lot where alcohol was involved, but since i can only remember the good parts :blush: they're not really regrettable

You're never too old to have a happy childhood.

Ah sodit.
I regret being a lazy little bugger and relying on decent brains and a silver tongue until I came a cropper a few years ago. I regret spending a couple of years doing stuff I didn't enjoy because of the cash. I regret telling a lot of people to get fucked, and not telling a lot of other people to get fucked. I regret losing contact with so many people.

why?? i played in the rain last night, and didn't give a hoot what my neighbors thought. it felt good, like it did when i was a kid...

i learned a long time ago to screw what other people thought of me, turns out they weren't there for me when it really counted anyway.

welcome back. how was your vacation. you didnt really miss antything interesting here

Well, been accepted into my new uni so I'm now a very bored photojournalism/graphics student waiting to get the hell over there. Thus the combination of extreme boredom (cannot even open photoshop at the moment without feeling ill after the last couple of weeks) and excellent mood drove me back.

Regret? The things I didn't do for fear of getting in trouble, not necessarily with the law, but with family, friends, peers, employers. :(
And a whole lot of things I did do. Wisdom don't come cheap.

"Regrets? I've had a few, too few to mention....." - Ol' Blue Eyes

Anything I have done in my life, good or bad, has served to make me who I am today. So, no, I don't regret anythiing I've done.

There are a few things I wish I'd have done different........

Bearing the knowledge that all I have done has brought me to be who I am today (whom I am happy to be) I can say I have some regrets:

- I regret going out with my 1st boyfriend Mick. He was a dickhead. I should have listened to my dad!

- I regret the way Tim and I broke up, although I am very happy in my current new relationship, I just wish I could have handled things better.

- I regret not attending my brothers funeral. I was angry at the time but now I wish I had of gone to say goodbye.

- I regret not keeping in contact with all my old mates from school, I really only still speak to a small handful now.

- I regret how I treated my dad when I was ages 15-through-17. I was a total bitch to him and he is the most precious thing in my life. I will never be able to make up for that, and I'll never be able to thank him enough for being such an awesome dad.

Hm...after reading a couple of posts that mentions, "But I would be a different person now", I'm like, "and that's a 'bad' thing?" :D

I *know* that I'd be a different person if I had not had bad eating habits as a child, later on, been more compliant with my diabetes care and had gone to the docs a bit more. Oh yeah: I would have been different, and I think I would have been better (health-wise) for it.

And I *kindasorta* regret not leaving home at an earlier age (like most of my friends).

Haha, well I don't like my niehbours anyway, so mud it is. It's raining now but I won't go, in Britain there will be PLENTY more oppotunities to play in the rain...

The grass is always greener.... in Britain.

Mm.

* I regret trusting the man that date-raped me when I was 16.

* I regret not going to college.

* I regret a great deal of how I handled my first serious relationship.

* I regret getting myself into credit card debt. :greenface

i regret i'm a man,why not a lovely girl

do you mean what you said or are you having difficulty expressing yourself in English?

I regret spending so much of my youth in sheer escapism....I regret spending much of my adult life thus far in sheer escapism......I regret dumping college a matter of months before my exams and then not going to uni....I regret that i have never had the discipline to finish the writing projects I have started....

I regret hurting my ex and i regret allowing him to hurt me....I regret starting smoking and having stopped with great effort I now regret having started again....

I regret never having used my intelligence or talents for anything worthwhile.....

I have decided to do something about my regrets...I have decided to have a change in direction and am now investigating the possibilities of getting into teaching. I am thinking I will take a TESOL course to allow me to teach english to incoming asylum seekers and refugees.

Keep bashing away at the smoking. I gave up for three years, started again and succeeded in giving up again for good four months ago. You will feel when the moment is right, and it will work, but that's not to say there won't be many 'practice' attempts on the way. Good luck.
And as to doing something about the rest of your regrets - more power to you, go to it!