# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![IGJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/igjoe/32/5420_2.png) [@IGJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IGJoe)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/21 "2009-06-13T06:37:56Z")
I would have come out to my family much much sooner. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/22 "2009-06-13T08:32:57Z")
I would never have married her. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/23 "2009-06-13T12:22:39Z")
Mine’s easy and people here are probably tired of hearing me go on about it. In 2003 I decided to have surgery on my stomach to fix my years of reflux and heartburn. The surgery was botched and has caused me years of problems, nearly killing me in 2005 when my stomach perforated. I would go to a different surgeon if I could go back in time. The one I have now probably would have done it correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/24 "2009-06-13T12:49:30Z")
I quit a reasonably stable job I enjoyed, with a good shift, (I like nights); for a job doing something similar, but not quite the same, working 9 to 5, paying just £2/hr more. It collapsed after 3 months and now 4 years later I’m still trying to get anything like stable employment. ---
**Author:** ![bathsheba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@bathsheba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bathsheba)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/25 "2009-06-13T12:50:07Z")
As above. Should have walked out and gone to a different hospital. ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_Venom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9fc348/32.png) [@Lady\_Venom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Venom)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/26 "2009-06-13T13:52:20Z")
Not been as careful to not get pregnant with my ex. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/27 "2009-06-13T14:11:27Z")
I remember years ago reading a quote from Peter Sellers. His answer to whether he would do everything the same if he had to live his life all over again was, “Yes… But I would not see [The Magus](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063260/).” ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/28 "2009-06-13T14:29:53Z")
I would have gone to one of the colleges that offered me a full ride–probably Iowa State–instead of going to the better private school that I went to. Long story short, had I not been essentially forced by the circumstance of my dad losing his job, I probably wouldn’t have married my ex-husband. And, if I’d gotten my BA in 4 years instead of 2 1/2, I’d’ve had a much better college experience. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/29 "2009-06-13T16:34:50Z")
I would rewind my life to February 9, 1989 and tell my younger self: **GET AWAY FROM THAT REDHEAD GIRL WHO IS FLIRTING WITH YOU! TAKE MY ADVICE, SHE _WILL_ MAKE YOUR LIFE HELL!!!** Of course if I did this, who knows what sort of butterfly-effect changes might come to me. ---
**Author:** ![MannyL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/30 "2009-06-13T17:40:56Z")
I would not have gotten involved with Grimace ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/31 "2009-06-13T17:56:53Z")
I would have paid better attention in driver’s ed class in high school, and not been absent on the ONE day out of the year when you could schedule time on the driving simulator, without which there was absolutely no chance in hell to get your learner’s permit through the school. My life would have been so different if I had learned to drive when I first had the chance. I would have been more independent and not missed out on so many opportunities. Then again, I might have gotten killed in a car accident, but that can happen just as easily when you’re a passenger. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/32 "2009-06-13T18:54:43Z")
Whole lot of little ones but I’m having trouble picking one that REALLY made my life diverge in a big meaningful way… • Back in my senior year of HS when my folks were still inclined to pay for my college education, I’d have picked a much more appropriate college. Maybe Berkeley or Santa Cruz in the Univ of Cal system. • I would have written or called my contacts in New York in 1984 before hitch-hiking there, and then maybe I would have landed indoors instead of being a homeless person. • Grad school. Either applied to more programs to begin with or applied to other programs during my first year at Stony Brook, and gotten the hell out of that place. • Patheticallly trivial yet spectacularly annoying: In my AOL 2.x user days I would have _saved my freaking emails to hard disk_ instead of assuming AOL would keep them on their online servers in perpetuity, so that I would not have that gap in my email history today. • January: I would have waited for the attorney to get back to me before replying to the letter from my employer. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/33 "2009-06-13T20:38:37Z")
I would have gone to the cops instead of telling my mother. ---
**Author:** ![Nocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9fc348/32.png) [@Nocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nocturne)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/34 "2009-06-13T20:54:55Z")
I would’ve waited longer to get married…so we probably would have never married. It would’ve been better that way. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/35 "2009-06-13T23:48:35Z")
I hate that idea. Everything that led up to my daughter being born was quite out of my control. If I’d tried to influence my life positively, she wouldn’t exist! ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/36 "2009-06-14T00:18:53Z")
I wouldn’t have invited my best friend to my 16th birthday party. ---
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/37 "2009-06-14T00:20:44Z")
I would have asked Penny out back in High School. ---
**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 14, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/38 "2009-06-14T00:47:59Z")
It’s funny how so many answers boil down to either missing an opportunity for a relationship or taking the opportunity for one. ---
**Author:** ![maladroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@maladroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maladroit)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/39 "2009-06-14T01:27:17Z")
In December 1975 I had my first child. I was just 18 years old and in a bad marriage. Really, at 18 is there any other kind? We were new to Portland Oregon. I had no support system in place there, so when I ended the marriage I moved back home to Michigan and my family with my baby. I wish I had tried to stick it out in Portland. Portland is a fantastic place, and I and my daughter would have had a nicer life. It seems that way to me anyway. Life is working out for us anyway, but I always wonder what might have been. You may say maybe I should wish I hadn’t had a baby at 18, and I do wish I’d been better prepared or at all prepared, but she’s fantastic so I wouldn’t wish to be without her. Ditto on the marriage - she wouldn’t have been born so I’m stuck with that too. He was a real dick but she’s turned any negative traits inherited from him into strengths. (And just fyi birth control failed.) ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636/40 "2009-06-14T02:07:48Z")
Divorced my soon to be ex about 10 years ago instead of waiting till now. I would be about $100,000 ahead of where I am today. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-your-life-over-change-one-decision/499636.md?page=3)