The life you could have had

I typically we all make mistakes but we live with different things sometimes it is for the best.

My only “what if “ is if I had stayed in Sydney instead of coming back to who I thought was “the love of my life”! He had moved on but failed to tell me!
However, had a very varied and fulfilling life to be honest !
HE NOW LIVES IN SYDNEY ! ?‍♀️

I wish I’d had the knowledge, much earlier in life, that ‘life is what you make it’. As a young woman, I wanted to be married and have a family, with no thought about having a fulfilling career. But I guess I’ve never been ambitious, and my life-choices have reflected that.

For the ‘there’s no such thing as age!’ brigade, there is, when age brings unexpected physical limitations like arthritis.

On the journey through life you just walk the path you’ve taken — with no benefit of hindsight. Life is full of regrets and when you’re running out of years they seem more poignant .. now is the time to seize the moment and go for it before it’s too late .. but finding the energy is a challenge !

I have no regrets - there have been happy times and not so happy times, but they have all shaped who I am today. Had anything happened differently, I would be different.
Still much to work on to improve and achieve and I believe some of my best days are still in front of me, not all behind me.
Helps me get out of bed every morning - and make the bed ;)

At the risk of sounding smug - I do not regret anything about my life - I have been very privileged so far. As Frank says, regrets I had a few but too few to mention

I'm divorced so I wonder how things would have been had I not married. However I have 2 fantastic kids and a wonderful DiL and grandson so the marriage resulted in good things which I wouldn't have if I hadn't married their dad! No regrets really and I'm happy with my life.

Regrets are a waste of time. We all made decisions in the past, right or wrong, and those decisions have determined who we are now. The past is gone, we can't change it so it is better to concentrate on the future

I am happy and content with my life, and love my family dearly, but reflect upon some very poor choices made - with hindsight of course - and wonder occasionally what life might have been if I had walked the other path available. I would be a lot richer without doubt, and opportunities for my children would have been better, but we haven't fared too badly.

I'm an Expert in wrong choices. Still wondering what my Life's Purpose was supposed to be.

I have relationship regrets. I was engaged at 20 and broke it off a year later and then went on to have the career I wanted, girls holidays, etc. I got married when I was 30 years old to a man the same age as myself, but he was mentally abusive, had affairs, etc. I left him 12 years ago and have been on my own ever since as my trust went with him. I often think about what my life would of turned out if I hadn't been so selfish wanting more in my 20s rather than settling down with a nice guy.

Ahh. Glance back but look forward. My Mum used to say never regret not having the experience you might have had as you will spoil the best of experiences you are having now. Sometimes to reflect is good. Learning not to regret decisions made and see the joy in where those choices took us even if on a rocky road makes us who we are today. Recently saw a pic of my first boyfriend though and his wife who could be a clone of myself !
Happy with my life but yes the mind wanders to I wonder if...

Kate Atkinson’s novel Life after Life is a great book about this.

Know that feeling

Never look back. Always look forward

We all take paths we should not have trod, and get too nervous to take a different one, but I believe that if you just look at your friends and ask yourself “is there one of them, with whom I would swap my life completely (not just pick the best bits of their life) the answer will be no, and then you can just get on and enjoy the life you have. I am a happy, contented 75 year old who has made good and bad decisions, but I am certainly not going to fret about it.

Stuck with first husband till he died. Lots of highs, lots of lows. Certainly wouldn't have had the (good) experiences, but also wouldn't have had the dreadful ones. New husband is much more restful to be with. He worries that he isn't exciting enough for me, but actually that's exactly how I like it!

I often wonder what my and my family's life would be like now if I hadn't returned to home town home when my folks were showing signs of needing some TLC. Remained since but can't help but feel family would have had more opportunities where we were.

The trouble is (for some people) things that have happened to you in the past, stay with you and make it virtually impossible to have a happy life no matter how hard you try.

I never do this. Ok my life could have been better but if I’d chosen a different path it could have been a whole lot worse. I’m just so happy that going with the flow and not straying from the path that life has chosen for me that my children have grown up safe, happy and healthy. I am just content with that.??

No regrets here. An ordinary life with some extraordinary episodes. Married at 19(!!!) and still with him 52 years later. We often say we’ve been lucky. I think the harder you work the luckier you get!

Can't have regrets, they made me who I am, been asked if regret my first marriage person who asked was surprised with my answer NO.
Because that would regretting my children and grandchildren

It would be wonderful to be able to see where all the various "what if" paths would have led! But the fact is that we are here now, and have to believe that this is where we are meant to be. Once we accept that, we can be content and grateful and just enjoy it. It could be better perhaps - but it could be worse!

I've had a good life given my very disrupted childhood and crazy teenage years. I shouldn't have married the first husband it was a bad time with him.
Second marriage has been good so no regrets really.

Well, my life has definitely not turned out the way I confidently expected it to when I was leaving school.

But I have never felt that I turned my back on opportunities.

The career I wanted, I didn't get, because those who taught at the Academy of Music didn't think I could make it. Nor were they at all helpful at suggesting alternatives. The attitude in the 1970s was "We know you are not good enough, so suck it up and go and do something else. It is no concern of ours."

Going to another country was impossible, as I could not take my student's grant with me, nor could I get permission to work in say, Austria, at that time.

So I got on with life as best I could.

When age 27, I voiced my concern about never meeting a man who might just possibly be a potential husband and father of the children I so dearly desired, friends and family more or less said, "Well, we don't know anyone you might like to meet" and that didn't help either.

If I missed opportunities, I did so because I frankly never realised they were present.

Now I look back and honestly cannot say I could have done anything different to what I did then, as the conditions that prevailed at the time precluded that.

Fortunately, I can also say that I am happy with the life I have and have had, with all its ups and downs, and broken dreams. These last were replaced with things I more or less fell into and had never thought I would have.