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Regrets are like opinions — if you’re over a certain age, you’ve definitely stored up your fair share. Even though they don’t help you or anyone else, sometimes it’s difficult to completely dismiss them. If you’re having one of those mopey days when you’re thinking hard about your regrets, take a gander at these 15 people’s biggest ones — it might make you feel a bit better.
#15. A degree I knew I would hate
“Enrolling in a degree I knew I would hate.”
#14. Maybe, maybe not
“A few years back I knew a girl. We were mainly friends of friends but being a small town we’d occasionally bump into each other at parties at one of the few bars. She was a fun chick, we got on well, as friends.
One night I was stumbling home drunk from the bar and I saw her walking down the street obviously stressed. I asked her if she was ok and she said no, and that she was going to the bridge to jump off. So I walked with her to the bridge, to make sure nothing happened. We talked for a while on the bridge before I finally convinced her to come and crash on my couch for the night.
Eventually she got a boyfriend and we slowly lost contact. Hadn’t heard from her in years until one day I found a message on my FB. It was from her and all it said was ‘hey, it’s my birthday’. Me being a smart ass replied ‘whoopty doo, good for you’. I expected her to reply in the joking way we used to talk when we were closer. But then the message remained on seen. After 5 minutes i typed ‘lol only joke. How old are you now, and how have you been?’ But when I hit send it came up that she had blocked me.
6 months later I got the news that she had committed suicide. I immediately thought back to that Facebook message. She was so lonely on her birthday that she was sending messages to virtually strangers to tell them it was her birthday. And I was a total dick to her. That will forever be my biggest regret. I’m not foolish enough to believe I could have saved her. But maybe just a simple conversation or 2 with her might have given her a push in the right direction. Maybe not. I’ll never know and I’ll always regret the way in replied to her.”
#13. Go see a doctor
“Trying to fix my dislocated shoulder by myself.
I now have permanent nerve damage and my neck is severely fucked up. I’m 26, this happened 4 years ago.
I know it could be worse but I was a swimmer and this is now life now. Everything in my life is so much worse off now and it frightens me that it could happen again.
Go see a fucking doctor if you’re hurt.”
#12. Too emotionally immature
“I ghosted somebody that I genuinely loved and cared about, to the point of considering marriage, because I was too emotionally immature to process that level of commitment.
We were in a long-distance situation because of my military service and I’d drunkenly confessed my deeper feelings for her, about how she was always so supportive and faithful and I knew she had to be the one I married. The next time we spoke and she mentioned how excited she was, I completely panicked. I walked the relationship so far back over the next months that I think the last thing I’d said was that if she didn’t hear from me by X date, that it would probably be best if she moved on. I haven’t talked to her since.
It is far and away the most shameful and cowardly thing I’ve ever done and I’ve thought about it, and her, nearly every single day in the near-decade that has followed. I’ve never been able to work up the nerve to contact her and apologize for how stupid and hurtful I was, and I don’t know that I ever will.
I sincerely hope she’s happy and with somebody who cherishes her, that ultimately I’m just some blip of a shitty ex that had no lasting impact on her life, but who knows. I’m sorry, Jessica.”
#11. Thinking what if
“Biggest regret of my entire life was knowing what I wanted to do in life and letting everyone else talk me out of pursuing it. Now I’m too old and broken, I’ve Spent a lot of time hopping between jobs never finding anything I could stick with. I know it’s cliche but follow your dreams and fuck what everyone else thinks. Trying and failing is better than sitting at your shitty job thinking what if.”
#10. The best years of my life
“I am 25 and a hermit. I moved to a larger city three years ago, and most of my friends stayed in my home town. I don’t go out (because I have no one to hang out with), and I basically spend most of my time working (I work remotely), exercising, and watching movies & TV shows.
I feel terrible, like I’m wasting the best years of my life.
What do I do?”
#9. It would have been an incredible experience
“I was a very successful gymnast back in my late teens and early 20’s and in 2010 I turned down a 2 year contract to train and perform for The House of Dancing Water in Macau, China.
It would have been an incredible experience and a potential slingshot into an amazing career…
I turned it down because after the audition my ex told me she didn’t want me to leave. She also didn’t want to move away from her friends. Especially the one she was apparently fucking on the side.”
#8. No matter how hard I try
“Not socialising in school here. I was fine with study, top of the class, etc. But now I have the social skills of a brick which doesn’t help since my dreams all involve actions that require outgoing sociability. I simply can’t talk to anyone in real life. It’s not even just the anxiety, it’s mostly the art of conversation itself that I outright lack. That shit does not compute in my head, no matter how hard I try.”
#7. Not brushing my teeth
“Not brushing my teeth enough.. im 20 now my teeth are pretty fucked and i walked with a hole in my front teeth for the last 2 years because i didnt want to go to the dentist. This is soo recent that i litterly just came back from my 4th visit and need to go back 1 more time and then its all “fixxed”
#6. Love is a decision
“Not making more effort in my marriage.
Love is a decision followed by concious effort.”
#5. A horrible idea
“There were a lot of great relationship opportunities when I was younger that seem so obvious now, but at the time I was so much of a wuss I didn’t even make an attempt. It was so stupid of me. Even if I would have got shot down, looking back it would have ultimately just been so inconsequential
Also, starting drinking was a horrible idea.”
#4. Never got around to it
“In 2010 i went to order £100 of Bitcoin (around £0.45 = 1 bitcoin) after reading an article saying crypto was the next big thing. My card bounced as i put in the wrong details in one of the fields an blocked it. I never got round to re-trying to order them..”
#3. Her beautiful face
“Having to find my dog a new home because we financially couldn’t even feed ourselves at the time… I miss seeing her beautiful face everyday and often wonder what happened to her.”
#2. Neglecting myself
“Neglecting myself during so many years. Because I feared life during the french equivalent of middle school, because I let people making fun of me, let it destroy my mental sanity, now I’m in college and making friend or working correctly is just impossible, I have this voice in my head that keeps repeating I’ll fail. I’m lost and not far from throwing my life away.”
#1. It constantly haunts me
“Not going to my dream college. I wanted a career with horses, and found a program that was exactly what I wanted. It was a few states over, but I didn’t want to stay in my hometown anyway, so it was perfect. I had reserved a room in their dorms, paid the fee, everything. Well it turned out that scholarships weren’t going to cover every expense, so my dad and grandma talked me out of going. Instead I went to the local community college, which had absolutely nothing I was interested in. Almost 10 years later I have no degree, no job, and feel completely directionless. It haunts me constantly that I didn’t go.”
Cheers.
