fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2624 ]

[ SECRET POST #2624 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2624 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

__________________________________________________

02.

[Outlander]

__________________________________________________

03.

[The Walking Dead]

__________________________________________________

04.

[How I Met Your Mother]

__________________________________________________

05.

[Twitch Plays Pokemon]

__________________________________________________

06.

[Batman, Kill La Kill, Borderlands]

__________________________________________________

07.

[Overlord]

__________________________________________________

08.

[Red Dwarf]

__________________________________________________

09.

[Paranatural]

__________________________________________________

10.

[Pitch Perfect]

__________________________________________________

11.

[Insidious: Chapter 2]

__________________________________________________

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 053 secrets from Secret Submission Post #375.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Have you ever had to make a decision about something that changed your life greatly from what it could have been had you chosen something else? What was your other option, and where do you think it might have led you? Do you regret the choice you made now, or are you satisfied with it?

I dropped the other half of my double major. Perhaps if I hadn't, I would be slightly more employable? But it's not very likely. *shrug*

God knows I keep trying to before something stops the plans and I remain stuck.

This is me. Every time I'm about to make a big, life-altering decision something happens and I end up exactly where I was. I was just figuring out the logistics of accepting the offer to move in with a friend who lives in a bigger city with more job opportunities as a stop-gap to get a descent job and an apartment to start over...when they announced they're moving back here because they got a new job nearby and will soon be selling their house.

I've made a lot of choices about a lot of things that could have been different (schools, university, moving home, jobs) that I don't really think have been life altering - I can't see my life being particularly different if I had taken the other choice.

However, I think my continued choice NOT to learn how to drive has changed my life considerably from what it could have been, just because everything is so much harder without this skill. But I'm going to change that this year. In fact, I'm getting my learner's license today. Wish me luck!

Good luck! :D

Re: Life altering choices.

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-11 00:00 (UTC) - Expand

I think every choice you make is life-altering.

I choose to think this is the best possible outcome and that I'm on the right path, because getting caught up in regrets is a waste of time and does more harm than good.

I botched my most serious relationship - if I were to have married, it would have been to him, but I didn't. If I had, there's a good chance we would have married, I would have followed him when he moved for his job, and I would have had kids, because that just seems to be the default. Objectively, I think I would have been happy with that, but I really don't regret it, because I really like the me that I am now. I like who I grew into on my own. I like what I've done with my life on my own. When I think back on it, it's just as a "what if", but it's not a regret. (Although I do wish mightily that I could peer into alternate universes and see what surprises that other life might have had in store.)

I think the largest Time Trouser* issue I've ever had was choosing between my top two college picks. Both were small engineering schools, one on the West Coast and the other on the East Coast. I went with the West Coast one, and I definitely don't regret it.

But I don't think I would have regretted the other choice, either. I'd be a very different person, I think. Possibly less confident (or would have taken longer to gain the confidence I have now), because the school I went to had a rather idiosyncratic social structure that worked out really well for supporting my own self-discovery process. I'd probably still be friends with more than 3 people from high school, since we'd have been in the same area. And I'd have gone to school in the same general city as my brother, which may have changed our relationship dynamic quite a bit. Not sure if for better or worse, though.

I'd actually really like to meet the alternate-universe me, and see just how much of who I am now is a product of my college experience and friend circle, and how much was a matter of discovering some sort of "inner me".

SA: Gah, and I forgot to explain the reference for poor souls who haven't read it:

*Time Trouser analogy courtesy of Terry Pratchett, in Jingo.

Yes more than once, quite a few I am not comfortable talking about on the internet, there are things I have done in my life that I wish I could have done differently and there are things I did that hurt a lot of people, but I would still do again, the ends justify the means and all that. But some of it haunts me 10 or more years later.

Last time was when I made the choice to move 6 hours away from my friends and family instead of staying near them. I didn't have to, I could have gone to a closer university... And nope, I don't regret it, I love it here even if I miss my friends and family my life would have been completely different if I had stayed and gone to NTNU. Doing what I did made me realise that I can actually fit in with new people, that I can be liked and respected by my peers and also I am pretty sure I figured out what I want to become because I moved.

I also made the choice to leave my first foster home to live in a childrens home until another home was made available to me,. Which meant that I moved three times in less than a year and attended just as many Junior High schools. I got a new family out of it and new friends so I don't regret it, but at the time it was hard leaving everything I knew behind and starting over (twice)... Because of that move I am getting an higher education instead of something a lot worse.

I quit my geology degree with the intention of studying english literature and I regret it intensely. Not because I want to be a geologist but because I never pursued the english literature part and that unfinished degree has made me feel like shit for the last eight years. It was the first time I just gave up on something... but not the last. I feel like if I'd just stuck it out I wouldn't have quite so many problems with self-motivation.

Many times. I do have some regrets, but the best I can do is look forward.

I decided that going to school away from home full-time didn't seem to be compatible with my disabilities so I came back home instead of Never Giving Up On My Dreams! Not that I'm giving up exactly but I'm not going to be getting the degree I wanted.

This should result in less college debt since I will no longer be paying for semesters that end up earning me no credit when I have to withdraw by the end.

I should never have let her move in with me, even if she was crying.

Oh, so many times. I decided not to go to college when I was young because I needed to take care of my younger sibling. Which is why I'm working my way through a degree program now, ten years later.

I decided to have kids. THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING.

Most recently I decided to coach soccer. We'll see how that goes.

I decided not to take a promotion. It made perfect sense at the time, as it would have gotten a bit of travel, and I had a family member who was ill. But now, looking back, I think that I should have accepted. The disease was easily treatable, and it was better within a couple of months. My career would have taken off. On the other hand, it stagnated. It is one of my biggest regrets.

Moving out when I was 18. I...am conflicted about it. On one hand, I had a lot of experiences that have really opened me up, and helped me settle down in ways I probably wouldn't have otherwise...but at the same time I've been through a lot of bad shit and probably would have been better off career and college wise if I hadn't.

I've actually made life-changing decisions several times over the past twenty years. I just made very sure that I was changing direction in ways that would improve my life, before I did so. Despite some peaks and valleys, for the most part, it's been a generally steady upward trend.

My only other option, if I hadn't started making decisions to change my direction in life regularly, would be to still be stuck in exactly the same place I was in 1998. Which would have supremely sucked.

So no, I don't regret any of the many many many life-changing choices I've made at all. Because no matter what negative things may have happened (and may still happen!) over the course of my life, nothing will ever be as rock-bottom as that was.

I'm in the process of trying to decide whether or not I should make a direction change right now, in fact; and making very sure it will be for the better, is what I am focusing on.

Re: Life altering choices.

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-11 01:35 (UTC) - Expand

I regret not having a more employable major/specialization in college. Four years later, and I'm working part-time in a CVS.

I was accepted to grad school in England for a fairly prestigious Masters/PhD program, but the school required me to have something like $20,000 in an English bank and I couldn't find anyone who would cosign a loan (my parents were out of the country at the time).

I chose to go to a local program, which I left after four months because the person who courted me lied to me about what I could accomplish. After that, my education and job prospects fizzled. I married the guy I was dating and haven't done anything interesting since.

I should have deferred the English school for a year, because my parents unexpectedly moved back by that point and I could have had the money. I don't regret my marriage, but I wonder what else I could have accomplished by now.

I had the opportunity, at a very low point in my life, to take a job that would have meant a move across the entire country, to Albuquerque NM no less. Fortunately, the job was such that I needed to go out there to interview, tour the facility, and essentially audition, while also getting a feel for the people I would be interacting closely with. I had fallen out of the industry just before that (hence the low point), so getting back in would have been a dream come true, a miracle. So I allowed them to fly me out there to interview in person.

I came away with very bad vibes and decided to turn the job down. Six months later, I found out that the company folded and had to restructure in order to survive, and everyone who had been there when I interviewed had been let go. So, had I taken it just to pursue the industry I thought I wanted to stay in, I would have been out of a job, far across the country from my loved ones and friends, and probably stuck. Yet, to this day, I still wonder about what would have happened if I'd chosen to take the job. My life would have turned out very differently. I don't regret it so much as I have uncertain feelings whether the path my life took since then is better or worse. I have an amazing partner and a nice house and a cute cat, but my job prospects have only gotten worse and worse over the years. It's kind of a crap shoot.

Dropping out of high school. I do regret it a lot, but getting into college probably wouldn't have been any different because of lack of good grades and money. Same with the job search, I work with a lot of college grads who couldn't find a better job. If I stayed I might have become more depressed and unstable, or maybe things would have done a 180 and I could have finished like a normal person, with a diploma and a group of friends. I can't go back to when I was seventeen and do it over again, so who knows?

I quit my soul-sucking job at Burger King to become a trucker. Best thing I ever did, my life is much better now.

Re: Life altering choices.

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-11 08:13 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Life altering choices.

riddian - 2014-03-12 07:28 (UTC) - Expand

I decided to stop trying to study abroad because I was in the middle of a really bad depressive episode. I'm pretty sure I would've killed myself if I stayed, so I'm pretty satisfied.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only