Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda
Posted: September 29, 2008 Filed under: War and Peace 3 CommentsYou know how people always talk about living life without regrets?
I find that a somewhat impossible task. Here are things I may always regret:
- Not going to nationals for Academic Decathlon in 2002. We were so close – if only I had done a little better…
- Thinking freshman year would be easy and I could just take it easy like in high school. Those grades are stuck. They’re on my transcript despite redoing several of them.
- Selling my first car.
- Missing out on the great duplex deal we almost got with Ben & Krista. I’m still irritated that the lady’s husband gave away the contract, within an hour of the lady telling us we’d almost definitely get it…communication is important! Again, we were so close!!
- Losing (somewhere) my favorite shirt and favorite skirt. I bought them both right before the Romgi and I got married, and they both disappeared by our first anniversary. Even after we moved to this apartment I kept hoping they’d turn up somewhere.
- Unintentionally murdering the lizards.
- Deciding not to go to Korea to teach English. It’s probably for the best, because if we had gone, I’d be flying back to the US at 7 or 8 months pregnant, which may not even be kosher…but I feel like that was my chance to do something awesomely adventurous, and I turned it down. Also the money was really tempting.
- Losing the fish platter!
- Eating all of the Slim Jims…I need some more…
What are your regrets?
Jarom
Mika
hilleries 
Not finishing my paramedic training…therefore having to deal with silly “college” jobs instead of doing something I was really interested in.
you need to spend more time outside!!!
When I was a freshman at Armijo H.S., there was a girl I liked, and she liked me (that’s the version I’m sticking with anyway, since it makes me feel good about myself). Unfortunately, my friends very much disliked her, and would have done the high-school-friend equivalent of disown me if they knew I had an interest in her.
One day, when I was walking with my friends, she came up and walked near us a few steps, then teased to get my attention, “Fine, don’t say hello then.” Remembering that I was with my friends, I said, “Oh, hello, you…”
I actually can’t repeat the rest. It was pretty mean and vulgar stuff, things I wouldn’t normally have said to anyone, let alone a girl I liked, something that both my parents would have slapped me for on the spot, then probably turned and slapped each other for having heard it. As you can imagine, she pretty much never spoke to me again, which meant I lost a friend, lost an opportunity, lost some dignity, and some self-respect. Plus, I found out that the girl’s mother, who actually thought I was a decent boy to be hanging out with her daughter, had been told word-for-word what I had said. Ouch!
The only good thing that’s come of the experience is that I’ve never said anything like that since, and I’ve always tried to fight the tendency to act one way when I’m with one group (or person) and a different way when I’m with another group. (That’s the biggest thing that got me in trouble here: trying to act cool in front of “the guys.”)
[Also, the reason the name on this is “Boys Will Be Boys” is that I think that expression is a poor excuse for bad behavior. “Boys Should Learn To Be Men.”]