# What Is Your Biggest Regret In Life? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 27, 2005, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044 "2005-06-27T14:53:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/61 "2009-06-11T23:01:53Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > There are many. Some bigger than others. > > Among the biggies… not going into med school. I’d have made a great doctor of radiology. Not because I like to help people but because I enjoy the applied investigative aspect of it. Yeah… weird reason to go into medicine, I know. Perhaps it’s good that I didn’t. One reason it’s probably good you didn’t is because everyone else graduating from med school also likes the idea of going into radiology (good hours, not much contact with patients) so radiology is extremely competitive to get into and there is a very good chance you would have wound up shunted into some other more dreary field of medicine if you had gone. The uncertainty of the residency process is one reason that I am still trying to decide if I regret going to med school. Med school is one of those things that sounds really cool if you are not the one actually doing it. It has caused me a lot of stress, sleepless nights, time away from my family (missed holidays, unable to take vacations with them, etc.), time away from my boyfriend (it’s the reason we’re still in a long distance relationship - unlike other careers where I could have just taken a job in his area). Now I have the financial stress of paying back enormous student loan debt from it. I’m not sure all the trouble it has caused me was worth it yet. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/62 "2009-06-11T23:02:18Z")
I regret not foreseeing that today’s rebellious party boy will probably mature into tomorrow’s lazy antisocial alcoholic. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/63 "2009-06-11T23:14:29Z")
> [@phouka](#): > > Going to a women’s university instead of a regular coed. Don’t get me wrong - the school was great - small, supportive, sheltering. But I ended up taking a 5 and a half year sabbatical from men just when I was starting to realize how much I liked them. I can’t help but wonder what my life would have been like if I’d gone to a school that had a population I could have dated. Mine’s kind of similar. I don’t really regret going to the all-boys high school, but I do regret not having the sense to realize that women weren’t some sort of mysterious creatures that took arcane and esoteric knowledge to be successful with. I didn’t lose my virginity until pretty late in the game, and now that I’m married, I wish I’d taken advantage of college for the bacchanal that it could have been. I had the drunk and gluttonous parts of orgiastic college excess down, but not the sexual part). ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/64 "2009-06-11T23:41:48Z")
**F.I.A.M.O** Fuck It And Move On Learn it. ---
**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 12, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/65 "2009-06-12T00:45:47Z")
I regret spending too many years working for other people, rather than doing the work I truly love. And I regret not having met my partner earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/66 "2009-06-12T00:49:30Z")
If I could go back and change just one thing… I’d skip the BBQ in the park on November 22 1998. Everything that’s gone wrong in my life since comes back to that one day. In fact, I’d need to go back 16 hours prior to that and go to bed early so that I didn’t get the invitation to go. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/67 "2009-06-12T02:26:52Z")
Believing that I was worth less than others because a few kids teased and bullied me in school. Listening to my mother when she told me that men didn’t feel love, and only wanted sex. Giving into my fear and refusing to date or make friends until I was 20. God - I’m trying so hard to throw those beliefs away, but a lot of damage was done. [Quote=Cazzle] If I could go back and change just one thing… I’d skip the BBQ in the park on November 22 1998. Everything that’s gone wrong in my life since comes back to that one day. In fact, I’d need to go back 16 hours prior to that and go to bed early so that I didn’t get the invitation to go. [/Quote] This sounds like the opening to a novel. ---
**Author:** ![Maradona](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@Maradona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maradona)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/68 "2009-06-12T04:24:55Z")
One big one… 1. Quitting soccer at the age of 12 even though I was pretty good at it and being in line to become the age group captain next year for school. Now 17 years later, every time I watch a soccer match I regret that stupid decision. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/69 "2009-06-12T04:36:00Z")
Not losing my virginity to the porn star whose lawn I used to mow. Man, was I oblivious! I’m pretty sure my Dad set it up and I dropped the ball. I found out years later when she met my ex-wife, and I later learned that they talked about me, and my wife was told “…he didn’t seem interested”. I swear this story is true. We had a family friend who was a porn star. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/70 "2009-06-12T04:50:11Z")
Not having more casual sex. Ever since I was sixteen, I’ve managed to get myself entangled in piles of “relationships” that don’t make me happy and just keep me from doing the things that I really want to do. I wish I could just enjoy the sex and skip the moving in together and letting things slowly taper off over the course of years until everyone is miserable part. Maybe one day I’ll be ready for “relationships”, but I wish I’d spent more of my youth just having fun instead of being so serious all of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/71 "2009-06-12T05:23:14Z")
> [@wasson](#): > > I’ve never been an emotional guy, but that situation had me torn up enough that I would vomit when I thought about her being with her boyfriend. It was absolutely devastating, and kept me away from dating/relationships for a long time. I still think it has some effect on me all this time later. :eek: Are you…ME? 😕 > [@Prancer](#): > > Staying with an ex-boyfriend I now refer to as Assman for 3 years. He was an ass. But was he a MAN? ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/72 "2009-06-12T13:46:12Z")
\*\*1. Of all of the decisions you have made over the course of your life, which do you regret the most and why? \*\* A. I am very sorry I never learned how to touch type. I’m too lazy to learn now and too used to hunt-and-peck. B. I’m sorry I wasn’t nicer to my sister when I was a kid. I was a total brat and pest and annoyed the crap out of her and was jealous all the time. We get along pretty well now but I think we could have been a lot closer. **2. Do you think that it is beneficial for you to anguish over decisions you cannot re-do?** A. I don’t think that it’s healthy, but most people seem to do it, including me. I’m getting much better about not doing that because I have finally understood that there really isn’t any point and it takes your energy away from the job at hand. It is totally good to actually believe this for the first time in my life instead of just saying it. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/73 "2009-06-12T13:52:29Z")
It’s so hard to regret most of my mistakes because they’ve generally involved relationships and pregnancy, and I wouldn’t change those experiences for anything. I guess I wish I’d taken better care of my teeth. Maybe used my insurance back years ago when I actually had it to get some help with my phobias and anxiety, then I might have finished college. Maybe. But who knows? ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/74 "2009-06-12T13:56:51Z")
The only regrets I can think of are the times I DIDN’T do things. I didn’t take school seriously enough. I didn’t take a chance on a lot of girls over the years. On the flip side - the all time coolest memories I have are from the times I went out on a limb. ---
**Author:** ![mookieblaylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@mookieblaylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mookieblaylock)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/75 "2009-06-12T14:29:09Z")
Not killing myself a long time ago. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/76 "2009-06-12T15:04:49Z")
Big surprise - I wish I’d made different decisions about women. Mainly because of how I treated them. Despite trying to be a good person, sometimes I feel I’ve gone through life like a bull in a china shop. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/77 "2009-06-12T15:18:42Z")
Not learning to play guitar as a youth when I had the time, dexterity and cognitive development was still ongoing. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_C](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Captain\_C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_C)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/78 "2009-06-12T15:28:15Z")
I spent all of my undergrad at college attempting to be ‘good’. I didn’t go to those evil drinking parties where everyone got Minor In Possession tickets, instead I sat in my apartment alone and drank. I didn’t join the time consuming extra curriculars so I could focus on classes, instead I sat in my apartment and put off homework by playing video games. I didn’t attend all the interesting sounding speakers and protests going on on campus during my class times, instead I sat in the back of class and wished I was somewhere else. I didn’t pursue all those ‘easy’ college girls, instead I stayed home and didn’t go out on dates or get laid. What did being ‘good’ get me? I’m under socialized, under experienced, and work a close-to minimum wage job even though I have a B.A. Blaaaaah. Screw you, every adult authority figure while I was growing up who told me that having a good time in college would be a mistake and that I should focus on my studies. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/79 "2009-06-12T15:34:57Z")
1. I didn’t run away from home when I graduated from high school. Or earlier. 2. I wasn’t with my dog when he died. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044/80 "2009-06-12T15:47:27Z")
What-no one regrets responding to a four year old zombie thread? 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-biggest-regret-in-life/310044.md?page=3)