If you could turn back time and take back one action, what would it be?

I would not let my first girlfriend walk all over me.
I was so badly abused, it ruined my relationships for the next 7 or 8 years.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda, To me it doesn’t matter… changing the few regrets I have from my past would drastically change the present….and I like my current present….. so my past will remain my past….and I plan on enjoying the future I have created for myself if it works out like I planned it….lol

My third year coaching, I made an error in judgement that cost me my job. It changed my life. No doubt I would be coaching in college today if that had not happened. It’s personal and a long story. Not all my fault…but, mostly.

There are a couple of things I would change but alas it cannot be done. And what @coffeenut said it would change the present by changing the past so just let the past go and create your future for yourself.

I agree with @coffeenut

I am the sum total NOW, of all my expereinces. To change anything would mean to alter the course of my destiny.

I could say it was a mistake to have married my ex husband, but, if not for him I would not have my wonderful daughter, nor would I have grown and healed my core wounds from that experience.

All experience lends itself to learning, therefore, there are no mistakes, only lessons. ;-)

Everything leads to now, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

After a while, past events start to blur together. There are very few events burned indelibly in my mind and those are events I enjoyed. I think there is a study about this, actually. We remember things we enjoyed much more than we remember negative events.

In addition to that, single events just don’t count much in the overall scheme of one’s life. So asking me to change something in the past is like asking me to change who I am.

I hurt people in the past, and I wish I hadn’t, but I wouldn’t take back the events leading up to those pains that I caused. I don’t think it would have made a difference even if I could have fixed them. They would have happened some other way. I learned crucial things from these experiences, such as how to avoid hurting people in that way again.

I still can’t think of anything specific—which is what I was trying to do all the time I was writing this. Oh well.

I’m with @coffeenut on this one. Changing my past would change my present, and I love my present. We all make mistakes but not learning from the mistakes we make is a bigger mistake. Without them I wouldn’t be where I am.

I agree with the I am the sum of my experience crowd. I just wonder if it might have made a difference if we had known what we we’re doing when we tried to resuscitate my father on the night he died. We tried to do cpr on the bed. A little bummer that’ll stick with you for a long time.

Oh, @jenandcolin, I wish I could give you a hug. Something similar happened with my grandmother, but I thankfully had the opportunity to apologize. I can imagine your pain and regret. :(

Personally, I would not have lost my virginity when or with who I did. I believe that one thing led to a feeling of “oh well, I’ve already screwed up this much…” which led to many more bad decisions that made about 15 years of my life miserable. I am still living with the repercussions of those decisions and I don’t appreciate much about who they have made me. Taking another path doesn’t equal bad, IMO. Barring any tragedy, I can only believe it would have been a better experience for me and those around me. Anyway, I wouldn’t know what I’m missing from this path so I couldn’t regret it.

So many things…...

I would have ended my first marriage before it began, like I had attempted to, but wasn’t assertive enough. Everyone ended up loosing out because of my cowardice.

I wouldn’t spit on that girl back in middle school.

I would have had more children… but circumstances at the time wouldn’t allow…
but I am happy with what I have now

I genuinely have no regrets whatsoever. Whatever way my life plays out is fine by me, the ups & the occasional downs. Moving forward, onwards & upwards!

There are a few I wish I could take back. I would’ve tried harder in taking my nephew to live with me instead. He may have turned out different but then again he may have only resented me taking me and might’ve acted out and changed other things in my life that went well. I would only change things if I knew what would happen in the future.
Ah, know one I wish I could take back. I wish I had stayed in the hospital the night my father died and been there to say good bye.

I wish I had been a Lot nicer to my mother. They moved me away , far away, from my friends at sixteen and I may have taken it out on her. I was depressed and yelled at her a lot. Wish I hadn’t.

We all have had our moments in our past life. you were a child and thought like a child. you are now an adult and think like an adult. i think your grandfather knows that you were sorry for your actions as a 6 year old. and, i am sure he has forgiven you.

When i was 7 years old, i stole a six pack of Nehi grape sodas. i took them off a backdock of a grocery store. i was on my way home from school. i walked in the front door of my house and my grandmother immediately asked me where i got the sodas. i told her they were just waiting for me to pick them up, “at the store”. i knew her raised eyebrow was a sure sign i was about to have my butt worn out. and, oh how true it was. i was still crying when my dad arrived home, after work. he learned of my naughtly deed and i received a second whipping. i could not sit down for days. my dad marched me right back to the store and made me apologize. boy, did i learn a lesson that day.

If i could, i wish i could take back that incident in my life. today, i still feel that my grandmother and my dad did not trust me, until the day they both died. i still feel guilty today and probably always will. never again.

The biggest regret I have other than getting married (game over) was not positioning the jack under my car more securely a few years back, it slipped & crushed my left hand…. I’m reminded of that mistake every cold winters day with the numbness below the wrist…. :-/

@john65pennington

That’s sad, and, sorry, abusive.

I know the old school mentality had it’s merits, but…to receive two serious ‘whippings’ as a 6 yr. old for your ‘crime’, and to feel that one incident led to a lifetime of trust issues with your dad and grandma, well….I hope you know now, as an adult, that their punishment far outweighed the crime and you were not responsible if they couldn’t get over it.

@john65pennington surely not John. You were 6 years old “for crying out loud!” If so, I’m like @Coloma, that is sad. I was going to say that was how we were raised back then until I read your last paragraph.

I’m so sorry, @john65pennington . Very sad. And to think that back then a lot of parents would have laughed about your pain, many having gotten the same thing as kids.

Years ago I once had a spat with a co-worker who was also a friend and neighbor. I could have easily patched it up but out of pride and stubborness, didn’t. On the second or third day of not speaking to him, he dove into our condo’s pool and died instantly from a brain anerurism. I’ve never quite forgiven myself for not walking the few yards from either my office to his or from my condo to his and saying, “I’m sorr, bud. Let’s go have a drink.”

At the age of 18, I would have studied art instead of maths and sciences. That’s my main regret.

@downtide You are never too old to learn you know. Why don’t you go back now and study?
I am sure you would enjoy it

@partyparty I tried but couldn’t do it while also working full time. There just weren’t enough hours in the day & night and I was making myself ill from lack of sleep, and still not having enough time to do all the necessary study. Giving up my job would mean I couldn’t afford to study so that wasn’t an option either.