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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
**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.
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?
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.
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.
