# Regrets, I have a few.



## liaconn (17 Feb 2011)

I'm just wondering how many of you, if you could go back to leaving school all over again, would do the same things with your life?

I would have travelled more, bought a property earlier, and gone into a more creative line of work.


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## Staples (17 Feb 2011)

Hindsight is 20/20.

I sometimes find it difficult to understand why I didn't travel more when I was younger.  Then I rememebered that a return flight to London with Aer Lingus cost about a week's wages.  Notions of travel were quickly knocked on the head in those days. 

It'd not like now where a year's "time out" is regarded as a right of passage.


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## Caveat (17 Feb 2011)

liaconn said:


> I would have travelled more, bought a property earlier, and gone into a more creative line of work.


 
+1

Maybe in an alternative world we would have ended up together? 

I have compensated though - by travelling as much as I can, when I can and often at the expense of other comforts but a few weeks here and there isn't the same, and it's not the travelling you had in mind I'm sure no matter how less obvious the destinations. I did live outside the country for 4 years so maybe that's one tick. 

Property? I'll admit I scoffed at what I saw as the wannabe wide boys aged 19/20 buying their homes in the late 80s - I was too "bohemian" to be tied to a mortgage. Arrogance of youth yes, but it wouldn't have been wholly compatible with travel either I suppose so difficult to have it both ways.

My line of work isn't creative but I am as creative as possible in my spare time with music, art, writing etc.

Things were a bit different then though - I never really felt (rightly or wrongly) that I had the luxury of having a career that I would thoroughly enjoy - to have "a decent job that you didn't hate" was often seen as almost a goal in itself. Maybe it was as much me as the zeitgeist - I dunno, but I do feel that subsequent generations have had much more of a sense of optimism and possibilities instilled into them.


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## liaconn (17 Feb 2011)

I agree with you both, it was a different time. When I left school we were in a recession and everyone was just scrabbling to get secure jobs with a bit of a future to them. I suppose I just envy young people now when I see all of the options available to them and how parents nowadays are much less cynical about people wanting to study media, communications etc. That would have been considered a bit 'arty' and frivolous when I was a school leaver.
Like you, Caveat, I got a bit involved in that world in my free time and, as a result of a couple of successes,  got selected for  a temporary posting in a more creative area of the public service. 

I just wish I'd gone off and lived in the States for a while and taken a bit of a risk workwise. Ah, we were a very sensible generation.


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## Shawady (17 Feb 2011)

I went to Australia when I was 30 and when I seen the lifestyle over there, part of me wished I spent a year travelling around there after I left college.
I'm now saving it for when I retire!


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## Sunny (17 Feb 2011)

I should have taken pictures of the girl I went out with when I was 21!


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## DB74 (17 Feb 2011)

Sunny said:


> I should have taken pictures of the girl I went out with when I was 21!


 
LOL

You could put the picture in your CV under achievements


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## truthseeker (17 Feb 2011)

I should have stayed in college for longer and done a Phd before I became tied to responsibilities and a pay packet.

I should have gone for my career of choice (astrophysics) rather than my career of economic necessity (software engineer).

I should have slept around more!!! Discreetly, of course.

I should have travelled more, and worked any old job in fun places.

I maybe should have considered the offer by the NYC cab driver when I was 21 who offered to marry me for 10k so I could get a green card 

I should have bought my property before the prices rocketed!!


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## DB74 (17 Feb 2011)

truthseeker said:


> I should have slept around more!!! Discreetly, of course.


 
It's never too late

I've PMed you (discreetly of course)!


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## Firefly (17 Feb 2011)

If I had done anything (majorly) different (e.g. went to Oz for a year) then maybe I woun't have met Mrs Firefly so no regrets there. However, a bit more travel would have been good, esp before we had kids.


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## truthseeker (17 Feb 2011)

DB74 said:


> It's never too late
> 
> I've PMed you (discreetly of course)!


 
Aw shucks 

Why did I go and get married!!


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## liaconn (17 Feb 2011)

Could you two get a room, and get off my nice respectable thread.


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## truthseeker (17 Feb 2011)

liaconn said:


> Could you two get a room, and get off my nice respectable thread.


 
Down with that sort of thing!


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## Sunny (17 Feb 2011)

Do you think there has ever been an AAM love affair? Or even simply just an affair!


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## becky (17 Feb 2011)

Sunny said:


> I should have taken pictures of the girl I went out with when I was 21!


 
Why?


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## Caveat (17 Feb 2011)

Sunny said:


> Do you think there has ever been an AAM love affair? Or even simply just an affair!


 
I would like to take this opportunity to propose myself selflessly as a pro bono man-whore...


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## liaconn (17 Feb 2011)

Do you still look like Liam Neeson???


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## Caveat (17 Feb 2011)

Within...er...reason.


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## liaconn (17 Feb 2011)

Hmmmm.


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## truthseeker (17 Feb 2011)

Sunny said:


> Do you think there has ever been an AAM love affair? Or even simply just an affair!


 
For all I know I HAVE had a love affair with an AAM poster - seeing as I dont know the identity behind any of the posters!


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## Caveat (17 Feb 2011)

liaconn said:


> Hmmmm.


 
Small typo?

Should it not have been "Mmmmmm" ?


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## liaconn (17 Feb 2011)

Hmmmmmmm ...    Nope, a H.


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## Staples (17 Feb 2011)

Doesn't it say a lot about the human condition that a discussion on the subject of regrets invariably develops into a coversation about sex?


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## TarfHead (17 Feb 2011)

Memo to 18yo self

Sell eircom at any level above offer price
Sell Bank of Ireland at €18.00


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## pinkyBear (17 Feb 2011)

Staples said:


> Doesn't it say a lot about the human condition that a discussion on the subject of regrets invariably develops into a coversation about sex?



Its says lots and thats why I love aam


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## Betsy Og (17 Feb 2011)

There's a million, well no, probably a couple of hundred of small things I would change if I had my time back, but I dont think I'd classify them as regrets as such. You know yourself, things you wouldnt say/wear/write/do again.

In terms of life's great choices, the source of bona fide regrets, I dont think I have any (so far, and touch wood etc). 

Before I met my wife there was another (woman, not wife!), and in idle hours you'd wonder how that might have panned out, but then I'm happy with wife & kids, wouldnt change it, so thats more curiosity than regret.

A good way to think about it is, given what you knew at the time, are you still happy the decision was reasonable/the best guess. 

As someone said hindsight is 20/20, I think a genuine regret needs to involve an objectively bad decision, as opposed to a reasonable decision that turned out bad because chance went against you e.g. the peak property buyers, no-one had a crystal ball, 90% of people were saying go for it, it seemed reasonable at the time, so I dont think you should beat yourself up too much about it. You were maybe more unlucky than foolish.


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## Purple (17 Feb 2011)

I'd have asked out the first girl I had a serious crush on (she was three years younger than me which was a big deal at that time; late teens). I'd had a few girlfriends but she was something special. She was a friends sister and looking back she probably felt the same way about me. She went to college in the UK and we lost touch. She was killed in an accident while travelling a few years after college. I went to the funeral and was overwhelmed with regrets, what if's and what might have been. 

That's the one thing that stands out. Of course, like many people, I think of the things I might have done; I was accepted into the National College of Art and Design but turned it down for a "real job".


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## Lex Foutish (17 Feb 2011)

I really regret smoking heavily up to my late twenties.... 

I played in a rock band for a few years. I packed that up too early.

And I stopped playing competitive soccer at 30. Should have kept going for a few years more.

Sometimes I regret not staying in the States........

But things worked out fairly well for me here and I wouldn't change too many aspects of the life I have now.


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## Teatime (17 Feb 2011)

I wanted to be a...lumberjack!


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## Lex Foutish (17 Feb 2011)

Teatime said:


> I wanted to be a...lumberjack!


 
I can picture you right now!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clPYfaTvHT0


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## shnaek (18 Feb 2011)

I'm still working on fixing my regrets.
My life is fine, but I am unfortunately wired to strive for the best.


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## SoylentGreen (18 Feb 2011)

TarfHead said:


> Memo to 18yo self
> 
> Sell eircom at any level above offer price


 
I wouldn't have recommended to my kids to put their hard earned "summer job" monies in to Eircom shares.


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## Mpsox (18 Feb 2011)

I don't have regrets, as I'm perfectly content with my life at the minute and if I had done things differently, who knows what might have happened.

However, I had a chance to work in Hong Kong in the late 90s for 6 months and for one reason and another, didn't take it up. I lived in England for the 90s and spent all my holidays coming home, and as such, haven't travelled as much as I'd like to. I also regret getting injured and having to give up rugby, cause I was a pretty decent prop and whilst I would never have made it to the very top, I do believe I could have played to a decent high standard. And of course there are a few regrets about women, but then, would I have being given my 6 week old her bottle at 4am this morning?


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## Betsy Og (18 Feb 2011)

Mpsox said:


> I I also regret getting injured and having to give up rugby,


 
How can you "regret" getting injured? Of course you'd have preferred not to, but you didnt decide to get injured. Even if you were a bit reckless in a tackle or whatever, decisions on a pitch are always split second.

Where maybe you coudl have regrets re injuries is where you didnt prepare or train enough and so were more susceptible to injury (not sufficiently linked for regret I'd say) or, perhaps a more realistic one being a decision to come back playing when you werent sufficiently recovered from a previous injury - and even in that case its often probably pressure from coaches or teammates that makes that happen.


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## liaconn (18 Feb 2011)

Oh, go on. Do none of you wish you'd run through fields with your hair blowing in the wind?? Or given everything up for your true love?? Or walked out of your safe job some boring Tuesday afternoon, hopped on a train and become a poet??


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## Staples (18 Feb 2011)

Mpsox said:


> I And of course there are a few regrets about women, but then, would I have being given my 6 week old her bottle at 4am this morning?


 
Is this offfered in support of or against your regrets about women.


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## ACA (18 Feb 2011)

I wish that I'd have spent more time with older loved ones and learnt more about my family tree when they were still able to remember...


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## oldtimer (18 Feb 2011)

ACA said:


> I wish that I'd have spent more time with older loved ones and learnt more about my family tree when they were still able to remember...


Spot on. When you are young you don't think of talking to older loved ones but everybody of advance years (like me) regrets when they are all dead and gone. So the moral of the story is, if you are young now, talk to your older relatives and get as much information as possible.


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## z107 (20 Feb 2011)

> And of course there are a few regrets about women, but then, would I have being given my 6 week old her bottle at 4am this morning?


I've got one of those as well! - 6 weeks old. 
I was busy winding at 5:30am

Regrets are strange really. Maybe following the other path would have worked out terrible.


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