"If Only..."

[Trillipse]

...I had known that when I was younger...

Regret may be a wasted emotion - we can't change the past but we can learn from it, 'n all that, but...

No matter what age you are now, is there something you have learned from experience which would have been helpful to you when you were younger and less wise?

Please no "you only learn from your mistakes/it's all part of the rich tapestry of life/I don't regret a single thing/all my mistakes led me to the happy place I'm at now" type stuff:   We're talking pure melancholic "if only i'd known that when i was younger" here, and i betcha most of you can think of something.

PS. "I wish I hadn't done that" is also valid currency here...

[woofgang]

That people can only be who they are and give what they have. You have to love them for who they are, not who you want them to be and accept what they offer and not be hurt or cross because it isn't what you want and they have to do the same to you. If you can't make a relationship on those grounds then don't keep making each other unhappy.

No one is telepathic, if someone isn't giving you what you want, either they can't or they don't want to or they don't know you want it. If you tell them what you want and you still don't get it, then its one of the first two options, deal with it and don't whine.

Pets and gardens are a blessing that none of us deserve

Children are a gift and not a right

nobody who you love or who loves you will ever live long enough. Tell them and show them that you love them more often. Don't waste time sulking

money spent on chanpagne, good smoked salmon, expensive chocolate and icecream is never wasted

Always tell the truth, its less effort in the long run

"No thank" you is an acceptable answer and doesn't require any explanantion

Good manners are a jewel

Good manners in the face of bad manners are priceless

[Englishbird]

How important money is!! And not to spend everything that's in my pocket.

And that no-one has the power to make you feel sh*t about yourself, if you don't let them!!

[ARSENAL]

If only I had not spent all that time worrying about things that never actually happened.

[Trillipse]

Excellent, excellent... this is the sort of thing i'm after!

While i'm at it, i wish that...

a) I had valued time with my mum more, and not whined when on holidays that she'd put herself out to make nice

b) not thrown vast amounts of cash around when i had it

c) not watched so much tv - gone out more, learnt to play music, played a sport, exercised more in some way when i was a teenager

d) been less self obsessed in my twenties

are we on a limited stream here, or is there a vast well still to tap?

[mycatis]

I wish I had known that.....
my mum was telling the truth when she told me that she always knew what I was up to,

My son would grow up so quickly

School years really could have been the best years of my life

Reputation is what other people know about you, Honour is what you know about yourself

Children might or might not be a blessing, but to create them and then fail them was surely damnation.

[mycatis]

Some prices are just too high, no matter how much you may want the prize. The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart.

[woofgang]

aren't we a philosophical lot!

[Oneeyedvic]

I only wished I'd learnt to play the piano when I was a kid - aren't i am happy soul!

[becks]

I wish I'd known my mum was right about my boyfriends, there's one i genuinly regret, and i wish i'd listened to her, and no it's not a but i'm glad becuase now i wouldn't appreciate mr becks, he's a nasty ******* only i couldn't see it - mummys do know everything.

[druiaghtagh]

I wish i did not sweat the small stuff so much when younger, at 54 i can see how un important it all was

[Robinia]

I wish that...
I'd had the confidence to say what I wanted or felt at the time

I'd realised my mum was the way she was because that's all she knew how to be

And that I'd listened to her less, not more - sorry, but mums aren't always right

That I hadn't been such a worrier (& it's a hard habit to break - hi Arsenal ;-) )

That I'd run away with Michael from the fair!! :-)

 

 

[dothawkes]

Trillipse

I wish I hadn't let so many people run my life and push me around, it has taken several decades to be able to tell someone what I want to happen, and so there are regrets.

[mycatis]

lol Robinia, my guy from the fair was called Christian, Ah he were lovely!

[mycatis]

I wish I'd known that.... No thank you is an acceptable reply, to give someone. No more explanations are needed

[Andy008]

That for "instant idiot", just "add Stella".

[El D]

Life is what you make it.

Taking personal responsibility is freedom.

[Sasha13]

I wish I'd known that no man is ever worth your tears... and if you meet one he'll never make you cry.

[lizzierose]

regrets

not telling people how i felt when the moment was right, so many times

spending so much time lying in bed planning what iwas going to do with the rest of my life instead of actually doing it

giving up on dreams way too early on(I'm only 21)before anyone tells me its not too late I KNOW. i spend a lot of time lying in bed thinking about that : )

not working very hard at university

[Piper-AK]

I wish I hadn't been so easily influenced because I wanted to fit in.

I wish I'd always had the guts to do what I knew I wanted to do rather than what people though I should do.

I wish my mum had brought me up to take better care of my skin so I wouldn't have had to put up with spotty teen and tween-age years! (that's more of a flippant one, though)

Most of all I wish I'd know how much I would love my little girl who is now four months old and how happy she would make me - I spent the first three or four months of my pregnancy almost suicidal with depression (hormones and life-disruption, huh?).