Arright, fine…I’d have at least left a tack on my chair then.
Please tell us the story behind this.
I’m pretty much happy with my life right now, but a couple of options occur to me:
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be sure to have some condoms in my apartment for that college date with Amy.
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in early 1992, when I was volunteering on the Clinton campaign, I had the opportunity to step up the level of my involvement bigtime, but felt I couldn’t because of my law school coursework. I’ve always wondered if I might’ve ended up on the White House staff (as two friends did) if I’d done more for the campaign then.
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persuade my buddies not to get on that motorboat for another five minutes (there was a collision with another boat, and one of them was badly hurt).
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caution the Palm Beach County board of elections about the inadvisability of butterfly ballots in 2000.
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make some big Super Bowl bets, now that I know how those games came out…
I would have accepted that offer of a permanent job replacing my manager at the HMO in 1997. I was flattered to get it, but turned it down because I was young and afraid of what the crazier than an outhouse rat drama queen manager would do once she found out that her underling had taken over her position. In reality, it would have been an excellent way to jumpstart my fledgling career and make the VP very happy (he really wanted her gone but needed to find a capable replacement first; not easy, considering the limited employment pool in the area).
Buy Microsoft in 1987
Bwahahahaha!
I actually wanted to do that, but I didn’t have any money.
Maybe my one decision should be to buy some on option?
RR
Two things in 2001: I would’ve gone to see the World Trade Center in April when i was staying just a few blocks away but ironically, so close that the shorter buildings in between essentially blocked my view of the towers. It’s still strange to me that I was that close and let that opportunity pass me by.
And I would’ve not relied upon the fact that my car was locked and on my property to safeguard my belongings in the trunk and under the seat.
There are two things. Well hundreds really, but two really big ones.
One was a weekend bike trip my family took up the San Juan Islands. That single bike ride resulted in a series of moves, including our going back to Colorado. It is a very precise pivot on which courses changed drastically.
The other, which I’ll spare details the details, that really only three other people (should) know about, was a very bad, very stupid decision one weekend that led to a dissociation episode. One which I still haven’t completely gotten over(sort of my own fault though in that I have never really sought help from anyone for it).
So one event was a shift in trajectory, the other was a shift in perspective.
I suppose I would choose to undo the latter as it is a lot tougher to deal with a change in how your eyes see, rather than just what they see.
Ultimately though, I don’t think I would be able to go through with either change. Both things have had led to some negative outcomes, of course, but you have to deal with negatives no matter what happens in life. However, they have both led to people, events, and passions, which I am so very grateful for and which I could never imagine wishing away; had those two thing never happened, nor would all the good stuff that followed them.
Besides, if I did go back and change something, who’s to say that would work out well? I might very well just end up with a third thing to list for this post.
That there, I think, might be the biggest negative to come from those two. Thinking back on, and being able to pinpoint those exact moments in life when things change, has really took a toll on how I act on the present and future. I use to be far more spontaneous and carefree, now I over think things to point that I’ll often not even act at all.
Oh, and I also would change last weekend when I didn’t check the expiration date on the jelly until after I threw up.
Hmm, I’ve also closed up a lot since those two thing. For instance, not even a half-hour later I’m wondering if I shouldn’t just have the genie delete that last post.
Any magic mod lamps laying around here?
Two things. I wish I had never smoked (I had a heart attack at age 28 and heve never smoked since). And I wish that when I heard Sergei Brin give a talk in 1997 on his idea for a new search engine I had said to him, “If you ever start a company based on it, can I invest?”
Given the way it worked out, even considering all the good times we had and knowing it would mean that a lot of what I have in my life today I wouldn’t have, I would not gotten married. Certainly not at 22.
Generally, you need to report your post, or email/PM any mods that you happen to see online. I went ahead and deleted your post for you, with these notes so folks will know what to do when they experience Poster’s Remorse.
Lynn
For the Straight Dope
Wow, thanks. I didn’t even realize that was an available option; I thought I could only ask that rhetorically.
Well in a sense it felt good to actually let that out, I’d still rather keep it to myself.
Thanks again.
I would have majored in English or dance instead of trying to please my unpleasable parents.
I would have called my sister on that morning in July 1988 and made her late for work…or at least late enough that the worthless fucker in the red Fiero speeding down the streets of Philadelphia would have already been past and gone when she got off that bus.
I would not have asked her to marry me that night in 2001. I didn’t really want to anyways but there was a lot of pressure from everyone. I think things would have turned out the same, with us going our seperate ways, but at least there would not have been a messy divorce.
I applied and was accepted to the high school I thought I wanted to go to, and was miserable for my entire 9th grade year. By the end of the year, I was kicked out, and good riddance. I then applied and was accepted to a different, and by all measures much better, high school that I had never even considered before, and had the time of my life for three years. If I had it to do over again, I’d have applied to that other school in the first place, and had four wonderful years of high school instead of three.
Gone to West Point when I had the opportunity.
I probably still would have met mrAru, I can’t see me not playing AD&D=)
I thought of two right off the bat, but the rules say only one thing, right?
Hands down, this one.
You need to know that I got addicted to cigarettes at age 8.
Flashback: An afternoon when I was in 6th grade, sick from an upper respiratory infection. I remember wanting a cigarette sooo bad, but was coughing like crazy. I remember considering not having it. Seriously deciding whether or not to have it… but I did have it. I smoked it anyway.
I’m now 43, still smoking. And I wish… I really, really wish, that I had not smoked that cigarette. That I had, in those moments of consideration, taken the other choice.
[quote=“Elendil_s_Heir, post:42, topic:493773”]
Please tell us the story behind this.QUOTE]
I fell asleep about halfway between DC and Greensboro. This was unfortunate since I was the driver.
Her name was Dulcinea. There was a televised quiz show for high schoolers, and for two years, she’d won every game single-handedly. I loved her madly, but we didn’t attend the same school, so the game show was the only way I could meet her.
I put aside everything my senior year so that I could train–I studied history, geography, literature, everything. I became captain of my school’s team, and we won every game that season, including the finals. But alas, Dulcinea lost in the semi-finals. We never met, and I was crushed.
That year, a mutual acquaintance told me she was looking for a date to the Senior Prom. But I didn’t have the guts to ask. After all, she had a scholarship to attend an Ivy League school and I was going to a podunk third-rate university. Nothing happened.
I’ll confess, I still search for Dulcinea’s name on rare occasions. She’s a respected professor now, and from the look of it, not married. Ah, the heart still bleeds…