You "could kick yourself" for not having done what?

Taking the offer to go to college when I had the financial opportunity, among about twelve other things, but you only asked for one.

Going to college and then grad school instead of going straight in the work force where I would be debt free. Fuck education.

Gone on a date with the sweet guy from my Bus. Statistics class.

@evelyns_pet_zebra and @sap82 , are you two saying you regret GOING to college or NOT going to college. The question is confusing a bit with so many negatives. “regret not having done”

I had the opportunity to go to Tulane University and waited too long. I had children and got married instead. Now I can’t afford it!

@Judi I am saying going to college and grad school was fucking mistake and I would have been better off spending it on beer and whores.

That’s what I thought you were saying. What was your major? (I was the one who quit after 1 year of college and always wondered if it was a mistake. I like to hear it when people validate my decision, but I still have regrets.)

@Judi You are better off being out of debt. Dont go back. Its a waste of money and time. Dont regret shit. You were the smart one. I have an uncle who barely grad HS and he is a millionar.

I ain’t doing so bad myself,(now) but the first 15 years were hell.

I should have bought Gander Mountain stock when it was below a buck in November.
My personal assistant would be typing this stuff if I had.

I should have jumped on center stage, during Live Aid, when I had the chance.
Instead of staying in the rafters. Ok I was center stage, but directly above.

I should have bought Pfizer when I got a tip right before they came out with Viagra!

I should have bought PALM when it was about a buck not too long ago. It’s about 15 bucks now.

I regret not having returned to graduate school for personal reasons when I was in the financial shape to do it. College is a mediocre investment if you look at it purely in financial terms, but in the return you get with job and life satisfaction nothing else can match it.

And now going back to graduate school is a risk I simply can’t afford to take.

I should have broken up with the boyfriend I had junior year of high school and gone to my prom with a friend instead.

@Judi: The head of my mother’s Mensa group is a college dropout along with her husband. They are both happy and successful. College is good, but not for everybody.

Allow me to give a reverse example. The large corporation I worked for offered employees a Long Term Disability Insurance policy. It cost $20/week which was a bit of a hit when I first started, but didn’t make a significant impact later in my 20 years of service. The policy guaranteed me 60% of my highest salary should I become disabled. After twenty years and having paid over $20,000 on the policy I indeed became disabled with a terminal disease that has a slow progression. If I had not had that policy, I would be living on $2128 per month Social Security, and doing worse than “kicking myself”. That policy pays me just under $4000 additional a month, and although taxable the first few years, has become tax-exempt (a huge bonus) and provides annual cost of living increases. Talk about a wise decision or dumb luck striking just as my life and career were taking a tailspin nose-dive!

@Judi I am saying NOT going to college when I had the chance. It would have made my life a bit easier, and I wouldn’t have had to settle for some of the shitty jobs I’ve had over the years. Not all the jobs I’ve had were shitty, but many of them were.

I REGRET NOTHING!

Well, I guess maybe it depends on how you look at it.

I think about my high school days…I was too shy not only to ask anyone out, but to see signals when they were sent. There are two young ladies in particular, one in my class on whom I had a crush about as long as I can remember. We became incredibly close friends in college. In retrospect I think I would have had a chance with her. She at one point told me I was the closest person to her, including her boyfriend at the time (but not to tell him). That was probably my opportunity, though there were potentially many more. I was sure I was too fat for her to want to have anything to do with me, and as we spent almost every evening together in college, I also got to hear her complain about her boyfriend who certainly didn’t treat her 1/10th as well as I would have. I simply wasn’t going to try to break up a couple, and though I liked to lament how it never seemed I had an opportunity, there were times I could have said or done something and didn’t. And when I finally met her boyfriend, he was fatter than I was. I was better looking, had a better personality and she told me she liked me better, what the hell was my problem? My understanding is that even though she was very bright, she basically hooked up with some loser, had 4 kids, never got married and is described to me by a cousin who works with her dad as “a big mess”. Maybe I’d have had fun, maybe I’d have had more, and maybe she’d have realized her potential a bit more if I’d grown a pair.

Or another young lady…now she wasn’t someone I had a long standing crush on, but I definitely liked talking to her, and I started to like her quite a bit towards the end of high school. Unlike this other girl, she wasn’t dating anyone. Then in my senior yearbook, she put hearts around every single picture of herself in my yearbook…how’s that for a sign? Believe it or not, I didn’t see it. My parents went to her wedding (she’s divorced now) and she told them something to the effect that I was her “big teddy bear” and she’d have been my girl forever if I’d asked her out. Again, it could have been fun, it could have been more, who knows?

And my 20th high school reunion was this past weekend. One of these girls was not in my class, so she wasn’t there, and the other one who was in my class did not show up (even though she still lives in the same town we went to high school in). In fact, the majority of people there were not ones I spent a lot of time with. But we had a great time…they were by and large really good and fun people, and maybe I should regret not getting out of my shell a bit more.

But you know what? I’m married now. I have a child. And had I chosen a different path, I wouldn’t even know the path I’m on now. How could I kick myself for not doing something that wouldn’t have produced my son? I can’t. Even if I’d gotten out of my shell, maybe I’d have hooked up with someone else, maybe I’d have gotten more self confidence and eventually (but sooner than when I met my wife) I’d have hooked up with someone. If I go back and wonder what might have been, that’s all well and good, but knowing that I’d have to trade what I have, well, what I have would have to be something I WOULD trade.

So, what WOULD I trade? Well, I’d like to be lighter, I’d like to be healthier, I’d like to maybe have a more refined palate where so many bad foods didn’t seem so good and so many good foods didn’t seem so bad…I could say I wish I had learned to like more healthy foods. I could say that I wish I had gotten into more sports or other activities, become more active, and maybe my weight and health issues wouldn’t be so hard to overcome. But again, I look at that and say, OK, that might have changed my whole mindset, it might have changed who I am, who I became and the actions I took, which could have led to me not having the things I cherish now. And I can argue that I wouldn’t know this life…but that doesn’t make it better, that makes it worse.

Bottom line is, as long as there is a tomorrow, why should I regret anything? Why should I kick myself for not doing anything? It won’t be easy, but I can lose all this weight and get healthier and get off some of these drugs. I can take charge of my future, so what’s the point of looking to the past? So, I have to end where I started.

I REGRET NOTHING.

I regret not taking my studies seriously and for not making better choices in life (I seem to have a knack for making wrong decisions)

…but since we learn from our mistakes, I guess I could live with that.

not moving away