# Live your life over, change ONE decision. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 13, 2009, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636 "2009-06-13T02:54:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/1 "2009-06-13T02:54:17Z")
That’s all there is to it. Tell us the single decision you would change if you could, and why. I don’t have my answer yet, I just liked the question. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/2 "2009-06-13T02:58:24Z")
I got married before I went overseas, while we were both in the Army. If I had it to do over I’d wait until I returned and wasn’t quite so “head over heels in love”. The result would probably be that I wouldn’t have married the guy after all. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/3 "2009-06-13T02:59:13Z")
I wouldn’t start smoking. It’s messy, expensive and utterly unhealthy. And if you don’t start, you don’t have to quit. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/4 "2009-06-13T03:33:51Z")
I would not quit my job as an Art Director, to open a new company with my friend. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/5 "2009-06-13T03:54:57Z")
I started having some minor health issues five years ago and didn’t bother telling anybody or going to doctors till a full year later, thinking they were just temporary annoyances which would go away on their own. They didn’t, and only got worse and much more intractable. I wish I’d decided to seek treatment right when they started. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/6 "2009-06-13T04:34:56Z")
I would ask those Pitworthy folks at La Caixa for a fellowship (it’s one of the very few sources of money for a Spaniard looking for a master’s; master’s degrees are, with one exception, not even official degrees in Spain, so there’s no government funding), applied for another from Fulbright (whose attached strings are a lot lighter) and applied to MIT for that double program for which they sent me info (MS in Chem Eng, MBA) when I wrote Boston U asking for info about their doctorates. Those brochures had me drooling sooooooo badly… ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/7 "2009-06-13T04:37:57Z")
I would have swam a little less quickly. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Blue-Sighted\_Shadow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecae2f/32.png) [@The\_Blue-Sighted\_Shadow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Blue-Sighted_Shadow)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/8 "2009-06-13T04:40:50Z")
I’d have finished high school in San Francisco. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/9 "2009-06-13T04:42:55Z")
I would have called back the girl who worked at McDonald’s, who slipped me her phone number between two apple pies she gave me for free. She wasn’t the prettiest girl I had ever seen, and she seemed perhaps more than a tad eccentric, but given she’s the only female to seemingly have ever been attracted to me, I wonder how different my life might be now had I actually gone out with her and perhaps gained some actual experience with girls (I was 16 then, now 24). _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/10 "2009-06-13T04:45:02Z")
I would have focused on dating after college rather than trying to go off and make a million dollars through hard work and stubbornness. It takes a lot of time and effort to make it big, and doing that for no one’s benefit/applaud but my own wasn’t enough after a few months of sleep deprivation. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/11 "2009-06-13T04:48:03Z")
> [@alterego](#): > > I would have swam a little less quickly. I suspect this is largely a write-only thread, but I’m intrigued as to what this refers to. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/12 "2009-06-13T04:49:31Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > I would have called back the girl who worked at McDonald’s, who slipped me her phone number between two apple pies she gave me for free. She wasn’t the prettiest girl I had ever seen, and she seemed perhaps more than a tad eccentric, but given she’s the only female to seemingly have ever been attracted to me, I wonder how different my life might be now had I actually gone out with her and perhaps gained some actual experience with girls (I was 16 then, now 24). I’ve had thoughts like that before (this was a friend of a friend, really cute, I was just horribly shy. She went after me and I was a dumbass and that was pretty much my shot at a relationship in high school), but things worked out for me in the end. I met my fiancee (I’m 22) through a friend of a friend the same night I decided I didn’t want/need a girlfriend and it’d be stupid for me to have one. I was just going to focus on school. And then she walked it. So yeah, you never know. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/13 "2009-06-13T04:53:50Z")
To my past self: TALK TO THAT GIRL YOU STUPID STUPID DOPE!!! SHE’S GIVING YOU _EVERY_ POSITIVE SIGNAL!!! I suspect this thread is going to have a lot of response like mine, **Red** , and **Rand’s**. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/14 "2009-06-13T04:56:06Z")
I have precious few regrets in my life, but one that seems to consistently come up was to have gotten involved in a monogamous relationship as a freshman in high school which continued for the next 14 years. I really wish I would have dated like normal people. ---
**Author:** ![Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Picard_Kills_Kirk)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/15 "2009-06-13T05:03:06Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > I suspect this is largely a write-only thread, but I’m intrigued as to what this refers to. I am guessing it is the speed at which he/she swam for the egg. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/16 "2009-06-13T05:06:54Z")
Oh. Dramatic, that. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/17 "2009-06-13T05:07:12Z")
I wouldn’t have let being hung up on one boy keep me from noticing other boys around me. I won’t say that messing with each other’s minds from the ages of 15 to 23 didn’t have its moments, but… ---
**Author:** ![Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Picard_Kills_Kirk)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/18 "2009-06-13T05:08:46Z")
I would have followed my dream and taken a woodworking apprenticeship, instead of following my parents’ and going to college. College turned out fine, but now I am saddled with large amounts of student debt, a degree that I don’t really want, and am no closer to my dream. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/19 "2009-06-13T05:31:16Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > I would have called back the girl who worked at McDonald’s, who slipped me her phone number between two apple pies she gave me for free. \* Sweet Jesus. ☹ I would have applied for the engineering job in New Jersey after graduate school. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/20 "2009-06-13T06:32:38Z")
I had the biggest crush ever on this girl I had known in my late teens. She was _way_ out of my league, and I was awkward and shy at the time, but we had a ton of fun. I found out way too late, she actually had a crush on me from a mutual friend. In hindsight, I probably passed up a thousand times to make a move. I’ve been internally kicking myself ever since… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636.md?page=2)