Fork In The Road

[Gearbanger 101]

Saw something like this posted on another board a while back and thought it an interesting topic of conversation.

I'm sure all of us have some measure of regret in our lives for decisions we've made and would relish the opportunity to change them if we could.

Looking back on things, is there a point in your life where you made a decision and wished you could go back for a do over? Married the wrong girl? Worked at the wrong job? Unexplored missed opportunities? Personally, I'd love to get certain aspects of the last decade or so of my life back.

In the early 2000's, I went back to school after a first failed attempt and 4-years of working a crappy, unsatisfying job. As non productive as those years prior were, I was still young and felt it helped me gain perspective and valuable life experience.

What was probably the point in time for me I wished I'd taken a different path was not so much the time I decided to do so, but the conditions in which I went back. The mistake, was going back while in a relationship.....more importantly, while being in a relationship with the wrong girl. We probably weren't right at all for each other from the get go, but she was really hot and 25-year-old me was thinking with the wrong head. In the span of a few months prior, were engaged and found out we were going to have a baby (which looking back at it is probably the reason we got engaged in the first place) and after a couple of rocky years together prior, things look like they were straightening out.

Well, Mother Nature eventually decided to put an end to the baby (which looking back on it now was probably a blessing in disguise) and she decided that cheating on me with her boss for the next six plus months, while playing head games with me the whole time was her next natural step. Needless to say, it turned out to be a dramatic roller coaster that got my head in a bad place, that set me on the path to a lot of wrong decisions.

Don't get me wrong. I love the family I have now, and I know a lot of the good things in ones life, don't happen without the bad, but there just seems to be a 10-15 year span that flew by in the blink that I really wish could have done differently. It literally feels like I went from 25, to 40 overnight. . Heck, even 9-1-1 seems like just a couple of years ago and we're coming up on the 15th anniversary?!?

I know we can't change the past, but it's interesting to hear the "would have, could have" stories, if one could.


....so let's hear yours.

 

[rbohm]

if i had it to do over again, i would have joined the marines in the late 70s after college.

 

[Gearbanger 101]

if i had it to do over again, i would have joined the marines in the late 70s after college.

Yeah, that's another one on the list. Going straight from high-school, into college without knowing what I wanted to do (but went anyway because my parents said I had to) was a huge mistake and more importantly a big waste of time and money. I often wished I'd done some military service instead. Would have straightened me out earlier in life I think.

 

[Ronin38]

I graduated Embry Riddell Aeronautical University in 1990 with Commercial Pilot ratings. Unfortunately that's when Eastern and Continental were laying off most of their pilots, and there was no job market... I sure wish there was a way to have made that work out!

 

[Adieu]

I quit Allen Samuels Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram-Fiat as a technician because I wasn't making enough money and ended up back behind a parts counter until this year except for a 4-month stint selling cars and a 3-month stint at a Firestone store. I should have stayed. Nowhere else in the world could I be, on a daily basis, with factory support be working on AMC, Cummins, Renault, GM, Chrysler, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Fiat, Alfa-Romeo, and even Ford technology.

I wish I was kidding about everyone's technology,

AMC: 4.0L Jeeps
Cummins: Ram 2500+ obviously
Renault: Older OBD-1 Jeep and Eagle products, they still came in from time-to-time.
GM: Braking and steering systems on older Dodge trucks. Carburetors on older Jeeps, engines in certain older Jeeps.
Chrysler: Self-explanatory.
Mercedes: NAG-1 Transmissions, differentials in the Journey AWD, 300/Charger/Challenger/Magnum, the entire Chrysler Crossfire, Sprinter Vans, etc.
Mitsubishi: Engines in a lot of Chrysler small-to-midsize cars, the entire Sebring convertible.
Hyundai: Jeep Patriot/Compass "World Engines".
Fiat: Fiat
Alfa-Romeo: Dodge Dart, Chrysler 200.
Ford: Older Jeep and Dodge products with Motorcraft carburetors and/or electronics.

The techs I work with all specialize in A brand. They get weirded out by the fact that I'll grab the keys to anything but VW and fix it. One of them asked me about it, and I was like "A car's a car. After working at a Chrysler dealership, you can pretty much fix anything, I just avoid VW because I don't want the headaches." Today I had a Ram 2500 with a 6.7 Cummins in my bay, it was the first time a diesel 3/4-ton pickup had been worked on in our import shop, they'd been sending all of them (and all of that money) to our Ford shop. Screw that.

I could've kept doing that... working on something new and different all the time... I like Hyundai and all, but their stuff is so boring and vanilla in comparison to going from a Mitsubishi-built Sebring to a Ford-carbureted Jeep, to a Mercedes-Mopar bastard-child of a 300 or Charger, and so on. I think that's why I grab the used cars and oddball stuff that wonders our way like it's candy.

 

[Red_LX]

Yep...back in 2002, I graduated from college with my Associate's in drafting, but the job market was not so hot at the time and I had no experience so I couldn't find a job. Instead of really exploring what I wanted to do, I went back to school a year later at the urging of my mom and grandma and went into technology education. So I spent 3 years in school doing that, only to get to clinicals and find out that I hated it because kids now are unruly little brats and I would essentially be a babysitter (and, I found out tech ed was not what it was even when I had been in school, they were really changing the curriculum). So...I skipped out on student teaching and got a Regent's Bachelor of Arts (that's essentially a "general studies" bachelor's degree) so I could get the hell out of school.

I ended up getting into the autocad field, and I'm doing pretty well now, but it always nags at me- what if I had done something more productive with those 3 years, either working more at finding a job, or going into something at school that made more sense. Ah well.

 

[Jinx]

I can't change my schooling or career choices because that would affect how I met my wife. So I will go with not selling the house when the market was high in order to find a home that was more to our liking.

 

[Noobz347]

I should have spent all my lunch money on Apple stock.

 

[rbohm]

I should have spent all my lunch money on Apple stock.

i should have done the same thing in the 70s on microsoft

 

[TheRican]

Would've avoided college - yeah, sure I landed a good paying job, but it doesn't keep the motor churin'. I like to learn and think if I started my own shop or business I'd be in a pretty good place; but, now it's all IT until that day I pass... Joy