Opportunities you've had many would kill for and you wouldn't care less about

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

My brother is a rabid Auburn University football fan and a big time booster. This year he has a box for the Auburn-Bama game.

For anybody unfamiliar with the Auburn-Bama game’s significance in Alabama, it’s THE sports event of the year. People reserve hotel rooms in whichever city it’s going to be in for years in advance, the RVs start arriving days before the game, a tent and RV city springs up for literally a couple of miles around the stadium, it is bigger than the Super Bowl.

So he offered me a “seat” or whatever you want to call it in his private box. I know people who would kill for this opportunity. My response was “I sincerely appreciate the offer, but… no thanks” because, frankly, I’d just as soon spend a few hours shoving toothpicks under my toenails and fingernails than watch a college football game. I couldn’t care less about the game, I couldn’t care less who wins or doesn’t, and I only have a very general notion of how the game is even played. (I know what a touchdown and there’s a point for kicking a field goal but there are other ways of scoring too, I understand, and I don’t have a clue what they are nor do I care to learn.)

I was thinking about this today: how often do people get offered what many would see as glorious opportunities and just couldn’t care less about them? I was thinking, "I’ll bet that this very week there’s somebody who’s second row center to see Book of Mormon or Hugh Jackman or some other sold out hard-to-get-tickets-to Broadway show that I would LOVE to see and who couldn’t care less about and would just as soon be home balancing his/her checkbook and watching '90s movies on Netflix streaming. I’ve known people who were irked that they “had” to go with their families to Disney or to Italy even.

Taking it further, when I was a kid I always thought I totally should have been English- I was a major Anglophile, loved English history (still do), loved English TV, hate Alabama summers/love cool damp weather, etc., and I would think “Somewhere in England there’s a kid my age thinking 'Man, I should have been American- preferably from someplace hot, because I hate the British climate…”.

If I could I’d gladly give “my” space in the box to somebody else, but obviously it’s not mine to give, plus I can’t think of a better way to lose a friendship than to make somebody spend a day with my brother and his friends and wife and kids. So what’s something you’ve had the opportunity to do that many would kill for but you couldn’t care less about and wish you could pass on to somebody else? It can be anything from a sporting event to sex-with-an-A-list-movie-stud/goddess or anywhere in between or beyond.

#2

From various medical adventures of mine and my husband’s I’ve had occasion to flush away lots of vicodin, percoset, and other similar painkillers. I always do so with a little pang, knowing there are lots of people who would do anything for what I’m disposing of.

#3

I won Superbowl tickets one time and couldn’t really give a crap. Gave them away.

#4

I dislike most large gatherings and try to avoid them. Topping the list of my dislikes (just below riots) are concerts. In 1986, my SIL offered me front-row tickets and backstage passes to a Bruce Springsteen concert. I had to explain to her that I would pay not to go, and she should give them to someone more likely to enjoy them.

#5

When I was in college in the early 90s, the school had wrangled Pearl Jam to play there (this was at the height of their popularity). To avoid a riot for tickets, they had people line up and get issued a random number which would be their place in line for when tickets actually went on sale. I wasn’t a big PJ fan…I could give or take them but I waited online for the Random number because a bunch of my friends went. I got my number and it ended up being 4. I would be the fourth person on line.

In the end I ended up giving my spot to a girl I had a crush on (got nothing but a Thank you, sigh…). I never even went to the show.

#6

Not quite the same thing, but I received a scholarship to law school once. Of course, the interview for the scholarship turned me completely off the idea of going to law school altogether. Let someone else have that one.

#7

Sampiro: You could think of it as just a big party with a football game going on in the background.

#8

I won an award a few months ago and one of the perks was use of a car for a year from the local dealership. It was a fantastic, kind offer, but in reality:
[ul]
[li]I am still making payments on my car[/li][li]It was going to cost me almost $50 extra per month in insurance[/li][li]It was going to cost me close to double in gas costs compared to my high-efficiency, 40 mpg car[/li][/ul]

So I took the car, drove it for 3 weeks, and then returned it to the dealership with a sincere “thanks, but no thanks”. I figure that way they got their publicity and I got my “old” car back.

#9

When I was a teen, I met Gladys Knight’s son Shanga at summer camp. He was kind-of a lonely kid, but he and I hit it off pretty well, and when he found out I lived in the Chicago area, he told me his mom was doing some big concert there about a week after camp was over, and would I like to hang out with him backstage. As things went, a friend was having a birthday party that night, so I took a pass on it.
(In hindsight, I think I should’ve gone to the concert. Not due to me being a huge Gladys Knight fan, but because the birthday party was overflowing with teenage drama.)

#10

My stepdad’s mom – a wealthy woman until her Pepsi stock tanked – offered to pay my way through a four-year university. I got pregnant instead.

I’m not sure I would have been accepted at a good school anyway. My high school grades were always A’s and a few B’s, but I only took the required math and science courses and I wasn’t involved in extra-curricular stuff.

I do sometimes wonder “what if”.

#11

Two things:
-while working at a marina in Boston, I got a chance to crew on a Danish yacht-I could have spent the summer cruising Europe!
-I got in to Harvard Business school. In the 1980’s, an MBA from Haravard was a gold ticket. Stupid me

#12

Almost the opposite situation of the OP: my brother-in-law gets luxury-box tickets to a St. Louis Rams game every season as a perk of his job. Since he wouldn’t watch a football game if it was in his back yard and the beer was free (he spends most Sunday afternoons staring spellbound at the TV, watching cars make left turns), he throws them away. :eek:

Granted, the Rams are a shadow of their former selves, but still: luxury box tickets to an NFL game, for free! Damn!

#13

I’m not sure if people would kill for it, but it sure is an opportunity most don’t get. I grew up in The Netherlands, and have been able to legally purchase and use substances that many go to jail for possessing and using in most other countries in the world. I never really cared for it, it’s not a big deal, and I’ve never actually spent any money on legal marijuana.

#14

Front row tickets to see the Rolling Stones, back in '74 or '75, I think.

My younger brother got tickets, really wanted me to go, but it would have meant tossing aside my very first ever summer job. That’s just not who I am, though I was a big fan of the Stones.

I stopped telling my friend’s I’d been presented this opportunity, because they universally thought me a fool, for passing it by.

(I have since seen the Stones, a few times, so I’m not too sad about it!)

#15

As a young child, I was offered the opportunity to try out to be on Jeopardy Kids Week. There was apparently a first round of cut-offs which involved questions about me answered by my parents, and which I passed. The idea of being in a televised competition scared the ever-loving crap out of me, and I said a decisive ‘no’.

#16

Not sure if people would kill for this but I’m sure quite a few Japanese men fantasized about it. I had a casual relationship with a relatively well-known Japanese adult film actress for a year back in the mid '90s.

Also, for the past 4-5 years in Tokyo, I have given away lots of top tier concert tickets of western acts I don’t necessarily like (e.g. Bon Jovi, Aerosmith)

#17

I was offered what I’m told were good seats to a Bob Dylan concert once. I consider the only good Dylan tickets to be for seats where you can’t see or hear him so I declined.

And I turned down a round-trip airfare and two nights hotel to Los Angeles once. L.A. is way down the list of places I want to visit (San Antonio, Montreal, and Nauvoo IL are all ahead of it actually) plus it was in the company of somebody I didn’t want to spend that much time with.

#18

Ha, I can’t believe I came in here to find the OP was just like mine! My dad’s company had a box at home Clemson games when I was a kid and I HATED it - I hated football (still do) and either they’d drop me off at some daycare place even when I was way too old for it or I’d have to go and endure the damned thing. And urgh, when it was a big rivalry game it was all packed and governors and Strom Thurmond and all would show up and drink on my dad’s company’s dime and it just sucked awfully.

#19

A few years ago I had a really hot she-student once not-so-subtly offer to sleep with me if I’d “help” her write a term paper. I felt almost sad for her: you’re desperate enough to peddle your virtue (such as it is) for term paper assistance and wouldn’t you know it, your first pick is gay.

#20

He could, but considering this part:

He’d probably be better off watching the football game.

For myself, I can’t really think of anything, but my mom has repeatedly had the “honor” of throwing out the first pitch at a Giants game. She was thrilled when she eventually learned she could delegate that responsibility to someone who actually gave a damn about baseball.