Most Regretted Missed Opportunities

[Earthfriend]

Because you asked for it (or didn't...):

Which roads less travelled by do you still wish you'd taken? When you are alone at the end of the night, with a few beers in you, which moments do you look back on a go, 'Damn! Why didn't i ...'?

To start the ball rolling, here's one of mine :

I was once on a bus trip from Oxford to London siting next to a beautiful girl who - for some unfathomable reason - took a shine to me. We spent the whole trip chatting away. I told her about Australia and my life there, how i was travelling round Europe on hols before going to Uni next year, etc. She told me about her life in London, how her parents had emmigrated there from Jamiaca, about her friends, about the party they were having that night at a local pub...

I still don't know why i never went to that pub that night - fear, i guess. I still have the scrap bit of paper she wrote the address on, somewhere. I have regretted that choice ever since, who knows where it might have led...

[Kinslaughterer]

I've got one you'll never believe but I swear that every word is true. In high school more specifically Latin class (and I happen to like Latin, thank you), I sat next to this fantastic girl named Julie. We talked and talked and joked around for the whole semester becoming good friends all the while. I comtemplated asking her out but teenage male cowardice overwhelmed my best efforts. Late in the year, my mother, who was always deceptively observant, asked me what was wrong. Naturally, I hesitated but eventually I told her the whole story and how I felt about Julie. She asked me what Julie's last name was and then who her father was. Then she told me a story...

Apparently, when my dear mother was in high school, the same one I should add, she had a colossal crush on Julie's father. She spoke to him often but never felt she was good enough for him and he was popular with the ladies. She agonized over what to do until she finally decided to write him a letter and place it in his locker. Well after several pages of pouring out her soul she folded up the note and got a friend to put it in the his locker. Afterwards, perhaps a day or so later, she realized that she forgot to put her name on the letter. She was so overwhelmed with her thing she felt and wrote that she left out the most important part. If you knew my mother you would believe it. She never gathered the bravery up to confront him about it; her courage was spent.

She ended her story and said "who knows what could have happened" But she never gave me any advice. Then and there I decided I had to talk to Julie or I'd write her a letter but not make my mother's mistake. I poured my heart into a letter and took it school the next day. Remember it was late in the year; we only had a couple of days of school left. I decided to give it directly to her. Ye gods! She left for vacation with her family the weekend before. I suddenly realized we just didn't have a chance with these people. I was a senior so there was no next year to see her again for alas she was a year younger and I as my mother before me was left wondering what could have been.
I think that was kind of ironic, don't you?

[Infelice]

EF....you idiot!!!!! That was me. No only kidding Its not unfathomable that she took a shine to you, you're a nice guy.....even though you disobeyed a direct order from Elohim royalty.

Kin......you idiot !!!!! That was not me. But you have me reaching for the Kleenex. Thanks Turiya

As for me....well I have two, what I would consider, missed opportunities.
Firstly, if I had my time over again I would have started a family a lot earlier rather than leave it till its nearly too late.
Secondly, my husband was offered a job down in a little town on the northern NSW coast very close to where we regularly holiday.....if ever there is a place that is heaven on Earth it is this place.....but idiotically we decided that he should turn down the job.
Now every year when we go on holiday, we think about how instead of holidaying in this paradise, we could have been living in it. *sigh*

[[Syl]]

Regrets, I've had a few;
But then again, too few to mention.
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption.

Ah, the path not taken. Should I have gone to college (I banzaid it to a private liberal arts college in Tacoma, WA, got accepted, got some financial aid, but got scared by the enormous debt I would incur and the unsure future of a English major)? Not sure about that one.

Still, I know now that I should've got my degree while I was in the first time, or if not, I should've stayed in the Navy, stayed in the job I was doing, and taken the 35k reenlistment bonus. I'd be a lot further along than I am now.

[caamora]

I had the opportunity to go to any college in the U.S. when I was 17. My parents were willing to pay 100% for it in addition to letting me live with them rent free until I finished. I started, but I was too young and immature to appreciate the gift they gave me and I ended up quitting college.

Of course, now I am back in college trying to make up for lost time.

[Earthfriend]

caamora, i'm next to you in that boat!

Oh, if i'd only stuck at Uni the first time round...

[Skyweir]

hey i've walked that path myself which is why i am slugging it now

i completed 3 years of a Bachelor of Ed in Secondary Education .. and only had ONE miserable year to go .. ONE MISERABLE YEAR .. but oh no .. i decided i had to go to new zealand instead and took leave .. haha .. lol ..

when i returned the institution had amalgamated with a larger one and the course structure had entirely changed .. so out of my 3 rugged years i walked away with an offer of 1 1/2 semesters credit .. LOL .. they wanted me to complete another 3 1/4 yrs before i could graduate!!

well consequently i became unemployed .. worked in all sorts of odd jobs .. till i decided to recruit with the Police ..

now i have obviously written off that 3 years work .. and went back to Uni to make a career change ..

so its all good .. but its a long way round about to get somewhere

[Nav]

Hmm, not sure if I have any out-and-out regrets but I often wonder if I should have stayed in the Coastguard instead of coming to uni. I would likely have got into the Navy as an officer, but instead I chose came to study and damaged my lungs so badly from working in nightclubs that I'm now medically unfit for service. Still, it's more of a disappointment than a regret, because at least I'm likely to get a good degree.

Actually, there is the somewhat acrimonious end to my career as a yacht navigator. Children, buying cheap charts and falsifying expenses is never a good idea, no matter how nice those trainers are.