Wasn’t a conscious choice, but I wish I had learned to play an instrument sooner. It’s an entirely different world, and really helps you appreciate music more if you know something.
My Wife knew I had interest, and she surprised me with a $$ Martin acoustic guitar a few years ago. It’s a struggle, but I enjoy it. If I had started sooner, it would be a piece of cake.
What I like about it being $$ is I sure can’t blame the guitar. No way. Same way I never buy an inferior tool.
Several people have mentioned spouses. It’s interesting that this is sonething we jave a huge cultural bias against even talking about with kids. Romance is “girly”. There’s no parenting book that tells you how or when to help teach your child what to look for in a partner, or to make that decision. In fact, we tend to feel like parents shouldn’t have any opinion at all.
My Early British lit professor once said "everyone dismisses this era as silly or trivial because most of these novels are love stories. But what they usually are are novels exploring thebqurstion “who should you marry? How do you know? How can you get good guidance when you are trying to decide? And those are some of the most important questions anyone will ask in their life”. That really, really stuck with me.
My Wife of course 25 years now.
But something else too. I was laid off 31 years ago. I applied for a job with a group that hired people to go to Antarctica and do the busy work. You might be a janitor maybe maintenance, who knows. I was really a perfect fit. It paid peanuts and was only for the summer season but what an opportunity. I think I had the job.
At the same time, I was offered the job I currently have in the Colorado mountains working in GIS for county government. Also a perfect fit. It’s been a great job.
Sure, sometimes I wonder what if I had gone to Antarctica, but I made the right decision.
First - Grew up in a small midwest town, got into theatre, went to a state school majoring in theatre, decided to be an actor in one of the big coastal markets, applied to an acting school with a location in LA and in NY, they had a form with boxes to check with your choice, I had been to NY on a spring break and had loved it but had not been to LA, on the spur of the moment chose LA (figured if I were homeless I wouldn’t freeze to death there…), went to LA. I am certain life would have been very different if I had chosen NY instead.
Second - Working on a charity fund raising walk one Saturday, sat down next to someone from work who I had never really interacted with and started chatting. I was married at the time, they had just went through a divorce. Long story short I ended up not married any more, and not with this new person. Had I not sat down and started chatting…
Regarding first and second marriages, yes, choose wisely! I did the first time, but messed it up. I did not choose wisely the second time and am not happy now.
It was a combination of crap, yeah, marriage related.
My marriage issues were compounded by it being a late first marriage for kids, had kids in my 40s.
I had shame issues and those take forever to fix psychologically. I did actually work on that and have worked on it. I guess I would have started even earlier and harder on them so I could have met someone other than the woman who is now my ex. Or at least had my kids earlier. A second long distance relationship also didn’t work out because of the long distance and we both had issues from our cheating former spouses. So I suppose there’s still time left, just not that much of it, and I’m still raising my kids as well.