Things you once swore you'd never do but did anyway.

In My Humble Opinion
1

In the cheating thread both Qadgop the Mercotan and Bites When Provoked said that they don’t say ‘I’ll never do that!’ because it seems something inside them just wants to prove them wrong.

There have been many things that I once swore I’d never do and somehow, I ended up doing them.

I always used to swear that I’d remain a virgin until marriage and that I’d only be married to one person ever. But, I’ve never been married and I’ve already lost my virginity.

When I left my last job I swore I’d never work in customer service again. Then I found a waitressing gig which paid me 3x what I made before.

I used to be such a Republican that the idea of voting for a non-conservative was a scary thought indeed. Last November, I voted against Bush and in the local elections, I voted half democratic.

I could go on and on but I’m interested in hearing what you guys have done. So what have you done that you once swore you’d never do?

2

Illegal drugs, smoking, and drinking. I swore off all three in the fifth grade and by eighth I was doing all of the above. I quit using when I was 17 almost 18 and quit smoking a few years ago. I still drink but not of the “let’s get a cheap bottle of vodka and some Kool-aid and get alcohol poisoning!” variety anymore.

3

only thing i can think of is cheating, but it wasnt a planned thing and ive never done it since. anything else ive always been open to so theres not much ive done that id swore i wouldnt.

4

I swore I’d never get drunk. I’ve only done it once and I have no plans to re-visit that state. It just reminded me how little I enjoy even moderate drinking.

5

Once upon a time, I was actually straight edge. Swore off drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and once even took an abstinence pledge.

All of those failed before my 18th birthday.

6

Swore off alcohol, I now usually get smashed about once a month, haven’t done any illegal drugs yet though.

7

Split up with a boyfriend because he wanted to live abroad and I wanted to stay in England. He is now in London and I have been living in Japan for the past 14 years…

Swore I’d never live separately from my husband like so many families do here (to save the kids being uprooted every two or three years when the wageearner gets transferred). Just completed our first year of living like that…

Sigh.

8

Hey, I got a mention in an OP! Go, me.

I’ve certainly made a bundle of those kinds of statements in the past, but the most obvious ones that came back to bite me in the backside were:

1: Any woman who gets involved with a guy who is mean to her - be it physically or mentally - is a damned idiot.
My second boyfriend made a great job of scarring my psyche. What I’d never realised was that most people who are *really * good at mental (and presumably physical) domination don’t show it at the outset. They work it in slowly and convince you it’s you that’s the problem.

2. Cheating on your SO is reprehensible and unforgiveable.
2a. With his best friend is even worse.
2b. Particularly if that Best Friend is sharing a house with you.
Yet, at a point very near the end of the relationship with the ex (above), I turned to his best friend - who, it should be noted, is also *my * best friend, though we met through my ex - who had seen the decline of our relationship, always been keen on me, and basically turned away from his friend because of his treatment of me. I didn’t actually sleep with him, but I did wind up kissing him passionately. (Not a stoning offence, but since I have an extraordinarily low sex drive it’s probably on par with jumping his bones).

3. Anyone who’s in a stupid situation and doesn’t get out has to be totally mental - and probably deserves it. (subtitled: stupid situations are for stupid people)
So my ex and I break up. We’re co-owners (or at least mortgagees) of the house we’re in though, and I can’t afford rent anywhere else. So I move out to the lounge room and sleep on the couch, while he keeps the bedroom and MY bed. I make it clear to BestFriend that I’m not in a position to be involved with anyone right now and that one kiss thing was under the influence of alcohol (I don’t normally drink) and I’m terribly sorry to have lead him on like that. He’s still renting out the spare room.

I throw myself into online gaming as an escape from the depression, confusion, and low self-esteem situation I’m in, and - (no, wait, this needs a new headline)

4. Anyone getting into an ‘online romance’ needs their heads read.

  • get unreasonably attached to a charming man who I probably left more messed up than I was, frankly. We were awfully compatible on a lot of levels but it certainly didn’t justify the obsessive zeal which I pored into it. He did his best to keep me at arm’s length while still being affectionate and supportive though, and I’m forever grateful for both those actions.

**5. Rebound relationships are NEVER a good idea. **
6. And anyone who gives me an ultimatum can go to hell.
So anyway, it’s been about 7 months since ex and I ‘broke up’ but I’m still living with him (on the couch) in the house we bought together. My life is going to hell in a handbasket, my online boyfriend doesn’t love me (though he’s awful fond), my ex never loved me (and found me unattractive as well - a whole 'nother story) and now BestFriend (remember him, from points 2 and 3?), tells me that he’s loved me for years and can’t go on being just my friend anymore because it’s too painful for him.

Basically, he says either I give him a go as a boyfriend or he’s outta there. I soul-search and decide that I could lose him if I go the boyfriend route, but then he’s outta there as a friend if I don’t…and besides, he’s funny and clever (AND thinks I’m dead hawt - can you imagine?) and the fact of the matter is that I’d be utterly bereft if I lost him.

So, I think to myself, I guess at this point I have nothing to lose.

7. (never stated publically, but pretty much a given)And if you do take up with the ex’s best friend, continuing to live in the same house but in a different bedroom is totally whack.
So I move in to BestFriend’s bedroom, which bothers my Ex not at all, since he wasn’t ever that keen on me anyway and is more concerned that this doesn’t affect his relationship with his friend (too late by about 12 months, but Ex was never insightful) and as long as the mortgage money (or ‘rent’, if you prefer) keeps coming, he’s not bothered. We continue to rent there for about eight months before being booted out because Ex has someone else he wants to move into our room.

[ul]But hang on, Bites! Don’t you still half-own that house?[/ul]
Why yes, yes I do. But I allow myself to be kicked out anyway. Which leads neatly into …

8. Don’t let anyone shaft you out of your legal entitlements. Especially yourself.
So BestFriend and I move out, and I force the change of house ownership issue. All I want back is the 5k I paid as deposit (donated by my grandparents) and he can keep the house which has doubled in value during the last 2 years, and we’ll write off as a learning experience all the money I’ve paid into the mortgage since that time. I could *easily * force him to get the house valued and ‘buy me out’, but I elect to just leave it at that. (I still think that was a small price for closure, actually.)

========
For anyone who cares about happy endings, I’ve been with BestFriend for about 7 or 8 years now, we have our own home that we love, and this will be our fifth anniversary of marriage. He’s my soul mate and we’re as happy as clams - and still best friends! It took a really weird, totally screwy and morally/socially/logically ambiguous road to get there, but it all worked out for the best. Ex is happy too, in case anyone cares.

But that, dear reader, is why I *never * say never. I honestly believe that as soon as I go declaring a moral absolute, karma or perhaps my own contrary psyche immediately start putting into motion events that force me to become/do the very thing I condemned from my position of holier-than-thou superiority. And when those things come in quick succession, it can really take the wind out of your sails, let me tell you.

Karma doesn’t play fair - it not only kicks you when you’re down, it wears steel-toed boots. :smiley: It has thankfully been a number of years since I’ve been booted significantly…though I do still get minor prods when I get too cocky.

9

Just the one, illegal drugs. I just wasn’t in a sociable enough atmosphere when I first met people who smoked some wacky stuff so it helped my little moral centre puff up its chest and say no! But then I changed social circles and tried it a few times :rolleyes:

Then something I swore I would never do, not because I didn’t want to but because I never thought the opportunity would arise, was losing my virginity, which also came about because I changed social circles :wink:

10

Get drunk. Did it once and then swore I’d never do that again (I didn’t swear off alcohol, though I was tempted–I had a really terrible hangover–but I knew I’d end up drinking again). So far I’ve kept to that promise, though I did make the unpleasant discovery that I don’t have to get drunk to have bad hangovers. Ugh.

At least the second time I didn’t spend the whole day in a friends bed being nursed and getting all kinds of unwanted advice.

11

There should be a subsection of this thread for parenting. I swore I’d:

  1. Never use a pacifier
  2. Never use TV as a babysitter
  3. Never say, “Because I said so!”
  4. Never use the word “No!” as a command. Instead, redirect with positive distraction. (WTF was I THINKING?)
  5. Never let my child eat anything prepackaged, processed, containing refined flour or sugar or (Og forbid) obtained through a drive-through window
  6. Never let my child watch TV on a school night
  7. Never let my child own a video game system (Although I have to say I held off that one until he was 11 years old - far older than his peers!)

I’m sure there’s hundreds more, but that’s what I can think of at the moment.

12

When I was 5 years old, I swore I’d never kiss a girl… I mean, they had cooties!!!

Yeah, I managed to see the error of my ways and managed to get a few kisses from time to time. :slight_smile:

I generally don’t say never or always because I seem to find too many exceptions to too many rules.

13

I guess the rule is that when you say “I will never do x”, the universe will conspire to put you in a position where you can hardly avoid doing x.

So I hereby declare that I will never, under any circumstances, get into a hot tub with three naked strippers on ecstasy, even if - no, especially if someone offered to pay me a million dollars to do so.

14

Never eat tripe? Tried it last year, hated it, but I did try it.

Never talk to my mother again, but I guess that wasn’t a serious swear. How could it have been?

Never cheat. And I’ve never cheated…on my current SO. I broke the rule in the last relationship, but that was a long time ago.

15

I swore, as God is my witness, that I’d never be poor again. Oops.

Also, shop at The Gap.

16

I once swore that I’d never listen to any music written after the “day the music died”, being of course when David Lee Roth left Van Halen.

I was, almost certainly, an idiot.

17

That’s what I thought of first. When I babysat as a teenager, I was disgusted by pacifiers and always swore I’d never let my own kids use them.
“MY children will never, ever use pacifers!” Said in a self-righteous holier-than-thou tone, of course.
That rule went right out the window when my daughter was less than a day old. :smack:

I also said the same about rules 2-7 (TV, junk food, fast food, etc.), but was never quite as vehement about any of them as number 1.

18
  • Never go to grad school. I was right on that one… shoulda stayed far, far away!!
  • I said I would wait for marriage. What was I thinking?? It’s too much fun to wait!
  • Never drink. I still don’t drink much, but occasionally it’s not such a bad thing.
  • Never live outside the US. Well, I haven’t but I want to now.
  • Have kids. No kids yet, but considering how much life does try to make us do the things we swear we’ll never do, I’m afraid. I’m *very *afraid! No, please no! I don’t want them!! AAAAAHHHHHH!!! <runs and hides>
19

I can think of a few things…

I swore I’d never eat a hamburger again after getting *e-coli * poisoning when I was 12. A few years ago I started eating hamburgers again but I don’t like them all that much.

I swore I’d never smoke. Then one night in grad school I was bored and decided to smoke a few cigs with my roommate. I smoked like mad for a few years but eventually I was able to quit.

I swore I’d never ride on a motorcycle. Then along came my boyfriend Ed and his motorcycle. The next thing I knew we were riding around Europe and now we’re planning a trip out west to see some of the national parks in May. Not to mention I love it! :smiley:

20

I swore I’d never smoke. That one went out the window at age 16. I finally quit more than two years ago.

Fortunately, I didn’t make the same vow about drinking.