What do you wish you could do over?

[LennG]

 If you were able to go back in your life and correct something that you did years ago, what might that be?

We all made mistakes, and I wasn't referring to buying Microsoft when it first came out and passed on it. I look back on my life, and there are many things I wish I could redo. When we are young, we see many, many years ahead, so mistakes back then may not really mean much then, but looking back, they could have been life-changing.

One thing I wish I could be able to redo is when I went into the service, I left a huge box of baseball memorabilia in my closet, and my dear, departed mother decided we didn't need that anymore. I wish I had told her to leave it until I got home. I must have had 10 things autographed by Jackie Robinson, and many other Brooklyn Dodgers. I had several Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays cards, some also autographed. I can't tell you how much stuff I had that would be worth a small fortune today. It may not seem like a life-changing event but it was preventable and I wish I could go back and still have that box.

[DaveBrown74]

I feel somewhat fortunate in that I don't feel like I made any catastrophically bad life decisions. I married the right woman and have been very lucky in that regard. I feel we have done a good job as parents. I feel I knew at a young age what I was passionate about with respect to work, and I pursued that vigorously and have enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) my career. I feel like I have treated my close friends and family very well and have done as good a job as I could over the years to nurture and perpetuate all of those relationships.

This is by no means to say that I have not made mistakes, because I certainly have. For me, it's less about looking back 20 or 30 years ago and wishing I had made a major different decision and more about identifying current things in my life that I can improve upon and then setting about trying to improve those things.

Like anyone, I am very far from perfect and have tons of things I could be doing a better job on. I try to own those things and, where possible, set about trying to fix or at least improve them. Maybe it's something health-related. Maybe it's making more time for certain friends. Maybe it's doing more nice, spontaneous things for my wife. Maybe it's improving my organizational skills. Maybe it's spending less time in front of a screen/smartphone and more time in front of a physical book. There are a lot of things like this, and as much as I'd like to say I get to all of them and improve all of them, that would not be true.

So while I feel like I have been fortunate enough on the major life things, my life is full of ongoing things that I could be doing a lot better with, and I try to.

[LennG]

Jeff

 You reminded me of something that I wish I could have done differently, but in retrospect, I really couldn't.
You mentioned your family and time spent with them. In my life, especially raising my family, I had to spend a lot more time working and not enjoying my time with them. I ran a business, and then every day/night, I used to go out and umpire a baseball game. It was part of our income, and I just could not do it. I really never ate dinner with my kids in the summer months, except on weekends or when it rained. I had games till about 8:00 every night.
Working for myself, I was able to make time for their school events, et al, but I do regret not being able to be with them as much as I would have liked. I cannot go back and change that, as we had bills to pay, but I do regret it.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

My first wife - luckily, it was short (3 yrs) and no kids

Actually, my biggest regret was how I completely wasted high school. Didn't care about grades, school was stupid, did just enough to pass, girls were the only thing that really mattered; hence, marrying my H.S. girlfriend, which circles back to first wife (I was 19, she was 17...duhhh)

Second biggest regret...is that I didn't get interested in putting some money in the stock market 50 years ago. Again, females were what really mattered to me

Close second: selling my '55 Chevy 2-door, my 72 "Cuda", my Triumph TR6, my '69 GTX...

So...would've graduated with honors...bought stock at 20 years old...and had a barn full of classic cars

[squibber]

I recently read an article that said our brains spend 30 to 50% of our time either in the past or in the future so I guess it isn't easy just living in the moment. I kind of wish I would spend less time thinking about the past.

I was very shy growing up especially around women. I believed pretty women would never be interested in me. Because of this I dated very little until I met my wife in my late thirties. So my younger years left a lot to be desired.

My mind often drifts back to situations where I let opportunities with women pass me by. I sometimes think of the girl in my Psychology class that I really liked and I think she liked me but I was too shy to ask her out. What would have been? A beautiful college romance maybe?

Back in high school I felt I needed to go out of town for college to help me get out of my shell and develop confidence. I wanted to go to an out of state college with a friend that had about 1,000 girls and about 100 boys.  Alas my parents were domineering and insisted I go to a local college that had much fewer women that guys. They were for some reason enamored with this small Catholic college. This is the only college my parents would pay for. Being a people pleaser I let them win.

So I try to live in the moment. I have a wonderful wife and son. But as I lay in bed at night my mind drifts back to that girl in Psychology class and a few other girls and what my experience would have been in that out of state college.

[LennG]

 I think we could all wish we did things differently in High School.        

I was more in the Squibber realm, though I wasn't that shy. I as more interested in sports. I remember my mother used to tell people that I would probably marry a basketball.
Like Ric and his first wife, it was very common for kids to graduate HS and then get married.
Boy, how times have changed.