🔍 What Teenage Regrets Do You Harbor? Reflect on Missed Opportunities and Unfulfilled Dreams – Share Your Insights! 🤔
#TeenageRegrets #MissedOpportunities #YouthfulDreams #Reflect #PersonalGrowth
The Importance of Teenage Experiences
Are there moments in your adolescent years that you wish you could redo? Whether it’s pursuing a passion, traveling to a new destination, or simply seizing the day – many of us have regrets from our teenage days. Let’s delve into what could have been and embrace the lessons learned from these missed chances.
Discovering Unfulfilled Desires
Reflect on your teenage self and think about what activities or goals you wished you had pursued. Did you have a dream career that you never pursued? Or perhaps a chance to travel that slipped through your fingers? Share your thoughts and regrets, and let’s explore together!
Embracing Growth and Change
It’s never too late to chase your dreams or make up for lost time. By acknowledging your regrets and learning from them, you pave the way for personal growth and fulfillment. What would you tell your teenage self now? How can you apply those lessons to your current life?
Let’s embark on a journey of introspection and growth together. Share your teenage regrets and let’s discover the wisdom they hold. What’s one thing you regret not doing as a teenager? 🌟 #SelfReflection #RegretfulMoments #PersonalDevelopment
Going to parties and being be social more, I’m 30 years old, and I feel arrested at 16
learning to draw
Pursuing a cheerleader
being single
Trying to be friends with people from school or just socialize with more people my age
Being more outgoing.
I wish I would have pushed through my social anxiety instead of isolating myself from literally everyone. Easier said than done
Not doing stuff my parents thought was “too dangerous” that was actually 100% developmentally appropriate.
When I was 17 I got tickets to see Equus with Daniel Radcliffe in London, a four-hour train ride from the city where I grew up. One of my friends from school had a family member who lived in London and offered to host us. My parents flipped out that it was too dangerous, that my friend’s aunt lived in an unsavoury area etc. – these were two people who’d been to London maybe twice or three times in their entire lives at this point and had no idea about the actual on-the-ground conditions or dangers in any part of London. They wore me down with their lurid invented anxieties about fictional dangers until I had a panic attack at the supermarket and promised I’d back out of the trip. I will forever regret giving them that much power over me at a time when I should have been testing my own boundaries and taking opportunities to assert my independence.
Similarly, my grandma once prevented me from even applying to a reasonably nice retail job (from a teenager’s perspective) in case they made me clean the toilets, because she’d been made to clean the toilets in a former job and had walked out because she refused to do so. We had no idea at the time whether the store even had a staff toilet, let alone whose responsibility it would be to clean said toilet if it actually existed. 16yo me would not have loved cleaning a toilet at work, but I’d have put up with it if I had to, and the financial freedom/work experience benefits of having a job at that time in my life would have been huge. Controlling people don’t like to let the object of their control have too much alone time, though, so I got told repeatedly I wasn’t “allowed” to apply for most of the jobs available to teens in my area at the time, for mostly spurious reasons like this one – while my dad would also make cracks about how I was lazy because I didn’t have a job.
Same family members didn’t care at all about my emotional or social health, and actively prevented me from seeking mental healthcare as a teenager, even when I was severely depressed, self-harming, had a raging eating disorder and had begun abusing alcohol. They only cared about keeping me physically safe, like I was an object rather than a person. I had to extricate myself from them emotionally & logistically in young adulthood anyway, I just wish I’d had the foresight to do it sooner. And I wish I’d told them all to go fuck themselves a few more times along the way.
Running away from fights. Should have done that -vs- fighting.
Played for any school teams. I had a friend that used to to swear that we’d join the _____________ team and he’d crap out after trying out,
Buying Apple stock
There are so many books and movies and healthy experiences I should have explored instead of looking for the next available moment to smoke weed with a few friends who wouldn’t hesitate to throw me under the (metaphorical, perhaps literal) bus at the slightest temptation.
I regret not spending a lot of time with my actual family. If I could go back in time, I’d skip out on going into a mall parking lot with friends and just talk to my parents instead, or even go for a walk by myself. But that’s just my take, looking back on my particular experience.
I did a really bad job back then of realizing which social connections in my life were actually worth nurturing/cultivating.
Talking to girls more and actually asking them out
Dedicating myself to a sport. I was a very good athlete, and probably could have played college-level soccer. I ended up quitting soccer to play football because that’s what all my friends were doing – and it was a big deal at our school. I still have friends tell me I was by far the best player on the travel teams, and should have played. These friends all played at higher levels, including college. For me, it’s not just about a missed dream – but, It would have been good to have a competitive sport grounding me at college. Instead, I partied too much 🙂 Oh well.
Be myself and allow myself to enjoy the things I liked.
Instead I spent waaay too much time trying to fit into a box that was not made for me.
talking to more girls.
Finishing my education .. all those people that warned proved to be right . Thank god i got a job at a factory and worked my way to a good salary. But it stil is harder work then i could have been doing
401k initiation…. And investing in bitcoin
Sleeping with people where you had a chance. 1 or 2 that i had the chance to but didn’t and i often wonder what would have happened
Dying my hair unnatural colors
Harder to rock pink hair as a 30 year old lawyer lol
I wish I didn’t spend so much time “scamming chicks” and just enjoyed the fucking peace and quiet.
Lord, what I wouldn’t give today for a summer of zero responsibilities, for a week not worrying about mortgages, car loans, tuition for my kids, and the water heater on the fritz.
Have sex
Standing up for myself. Never learned how to do that.
Not being more social. 32 and I don’t have any long term friendships or people to call friends.
dating… have 0 social skills…
I regret Nothing.
Taking trips up Canada.
I lived in the PNW for a very long time and I never once went to Canada. It was only a 5-hour drive but I spent all my time as an 18 year old working and buying food.
Speaking TF UP
Flirting, dating. Maybe a sport.
Contrary to most of these posts I’m sure, but
Studying/homework.
I always just winged it, my brain has always been “spongey” so I’d just listen and mostly remember.
Rarely did homework, literally never studied.
Choosing a university outside my comfort zone.
Being more outgoing and getting out of the house. But thats me anti social hermit. 🤕
Picking up on the signals Susan was clearly sending as we chatted in the library.
Be (kind of) a man-whore.
Now, as a teen I was a very awkward, quiet, shy kid but after high school I “found myself”, gained a lot of confidence, became more physically attractive, and as such, gained a lot more attention from girls.
However, due to being an social outsider for such a long while, I wasn’t prepared on how to deal with this new influx of attention and did not know what I was doing. I defaulted into being the “nice guy” and let *soooo* many opportunities pass me by. Literally had girls on top of me ready to go and still I refused. 🤦♂️
I’m not saying I would have done something with all of them, or accepted every invitation, but I really regret not experiencing more with different girls.
Okay being myself, accepting and loving myself for who I was and not who I couldn’t become
Making stronger friendships and make more of an effort with the opposite sex.
Lift weights. Muscles you build young do stick around as you age, they’re like having calorie-burning boosters on you at all times.
Being more family-focused. I was pretty much a latch key kid as my parents dealt with my rebellious older sister. I probably could have grown more emotionally during that time. Instead, I went the angsty loner teenage boy route. I had friends but I was just as happy being by myself as I was with other people. This has affected me as an adult.
I should of bought a house at 13. Dam what was I thinking?
Socializing more, especially with girls. Trying to date. Going to therapy for possibly being on the spectrum. Figuring out what I wanted as a career early on.
Faking confidence so I would gain confidence. I didn’t learn that until I was 20.
Taking care of teeth
Having a “got to get out of HS as quick as possible. Just had to get that full time job in a sewing factory at $1.60 an hour-1970. Had a B average in HS but went on to college at age 40 after 4 kids and a couple of divorces and had a perfect 4.0 gpa. If I could I’d go back in time and kick my own ass. I’m sure I could have aced med school.
Being social, doing things that normal teenagers did like sleepovers and parties and going on dates with boys. My dad essentially made me feel locked in a room if I wasn’t at school and any social event I did go had a fucking curfew of 8pm or he would wait in a parking lot and couldn’t socialize with boys. He put me in an all girls school. That experience alone was strange. If I did socialize with boys, it was heavily scrutinized.
When I went to college and I dormed in a coed building, I didn’t have the social skills to not feel weird or awe struck when I’d converse with a boy and it took me a bit to get out of my shell or get rid of feeling embarrassed anytime a guy would talk to me especially when boys would flirt and I’d be like….wtf do I do? I wish I stood up for myself a lot more and I wish I didn’t feel so anxious and just did things because fuck it I’m 16
Having a teenage romance
a chance to hookup with one of the hottest girls in high school. she was half filipina half german.