Do You Have Any Regrets?

[naomi24]

I’ve travelled widely and I really regret not keeping a record of it all. I’ve got pictures of people I don’t recognise in places I don’t recognise but I must have met them someplace sometime.

How about you?

[Bazile]

Deskdiary

//This was in the early 90s, and she never came back from Oz//

She probably stayed and made a fortune in the gold and opal fields

[10ClarionSt]

I did ask my dad about his childhood and he wouldn't talk about it except to say that he spent a lot of it in Dr. Barnardos, as it was then. I've looked at the history search on Barnardos website and they want £25 to investigate an inquiry, and if there are records, then it's £95 to acquire copies of them.

[jno]

not cheap, Clarion, but for a one-off inquiry about a close relative I think I'd pay it.

[naomi24]

I would too.

[piggynose]

I've also travelled a hell of a lot. And have tons of photos to prove it, but absent mindedly forgot to write on the back of them where they were taken.
Also regret deciding on crashing in a cheap hotel in Adelaide where I was robbed of my camera with 4 months of film of photos taken in indonesia, new Zealand and oz!!!
Regret not talking enough to my now deceased parents about their past. Regret not taking a risk in a business I'm sure cudve been a success.
I could go on.
But should be thankful for what I've achieved up til now.

[emily1890]

not paying attention at school

sometimes I seem so unfamiliar to basic concepts it almost feels like seriously?. did they teach you nothing?

[novalis]

In the words of Edith Piaf 'Je ne regrette rien'.

[William51]

I regret not starting my present job earlier years ago when i had a chance to, it is the best job i have had.

[naomi24]

Emily, have you ever considered going for a further education course?

[bookbinder]

I passed my 11-plus examination when I was about 10 or 11. My then-widowed mother asked me if I wanted to go to grammar school. I said 'no'. Nobody explained to me what a grammar school education could mean. I just thought that I'd had enough of school life, and I didn't want any more. I've regretted saying 'no', instead of 'yes', ever since, and I've been desperately trying to catch up with my post-school education. I haven't been successful, and everything that I have tried has come too late.

[naomi24]

Oh, bookbinder! What a shame she asked you instead of just sending you to grammar school. I find that so sad. A missed opportunity and such an important one.

[bookbinder]

naomi24: thank you for your sympathetic reply. A long time after I was asked that question by my mother, I realised that she probably wanted me to begin work at 15, and to bring a wage packet into the house as soon as possible. The ironic thing is, when I was 15, she married again, and so she really had another wage packet coming into the house. But it was too late, then, for me, and I have spent many years going to night school to gain GCE's, but I felt that I was always running behind something, trying to catch up.

[naomi24]

Bookbinder, I really can relate to that. I come from an extremely poor background but passed the 11 plus and gained a place at grammar school - and for that not a day goes by when I’m
not thankful for it.

[Lie-in King]

Too many to list, really, but right off - I regret not having been able to spend more time actually *with* Lynne over the years. I miss her so profoundly.

I regret not being able to save all the family's possessions (long story, not for here) & having almost nothing left of them.

Bit miserable from me, but good thread Naomi, thank you :-)

[sandyRoe]

I was the brightest boy in a primary school group who were being tutored with the aim of sitting the 11+. We moved home and my sister's boyfriend, soon to be her husband, suggested that I move to a local school. I think my mother agreed to please him.
There was no 11+ stream in the new school. Things might have been very different if my education hadn't been interrupted.

[bookbinder]

naomi24: life seems to be full of 'if only', but would things really have been better if we could have 'only' made the right decisions then?

[naomi24]

We’ll never know, bookbinder, and that is probably for the best.

My pleasure, LiK. It gives us all something to chat about. :o)