How do you deal with not making the right decisions in childhood?

[Anonymous]

Everyone has life regrets, but it's tough knowing I made so many life changing decisions early on that can't be easily fixed. For one, I regret not studying harder in elementary and middle school. By high school, I had to study twice as long as my peers, and that limited the amount of time I had for extracurriculars. My second regret was not taking care of my vision early on. I have myopia and wear glasses, and that limits my ability to join the US military. My third regret was not playing sports. Instead, I wasted my time on video games and the internet. It's so frustrating, and now doors have closed because of these past life choices

[Anonymous]

How old are you? Let's start with that . . .

[Anonymous]

You get vision care and take up a sport. Take control of your life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You get vision care and take up a sport. Take control of your life.

Yep.

You have to have perspective. Everyone has regrets. If something is within your power to change -- change it!

Nearsightedness isn't really someone's fault.

[Anonymous]

You can’t change the past. You were a child with a still developing frontal cortex. Give yourself grace and move on. Resolve to learn from your mistakes and focus on making better choices from here on out.

[Anonymous]

PP here. Your life is hardly over! All of us have doors that are closed to us. Accept yours and move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone has life regrets, but it's tough knowing I made so many life changing decisions early on that can't be easily fixed. For one, I regret not studying harder in elementary and middle school. By high school, I had to study twice as long as my peers, and that limited the amount of time I had for extracurriculars. My second regret was not taking care of my vision early on. I have myopia and wear glasses, and that limits my ability to join the US military. My third regret was not playing sports. Instead, I wasted my time on video games and the internet. It's so frustrating, and now doors have closed because of these past life choices

Are you close to death? Because if not, you have time to play sports, take up new extracurriculars, and get your eyes fixed with LASIK so that you can join the military.

[Anonymous]

Read up on lasik. Not everyone is a fan of it and some people say it made their vision worse

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone has life regrets, but it's tough knowing I made so many life changing decisions early on that can't be easily fixed. For one, I regret not studying harder in elementary and middle school. By high school, I had to study twice as long as my peers, and that limited the amount of time I had for extracurriculars. My second regret was not taking care of my vision early on. I have myopia and wear glasses, and that limits my ability to join the US military. My third regret was not playing sports. Instead, I wasted my time on video games and the internet. It's so frustrating, and now doors have closed because of these past life choices

What's done is done. Focus on today so you aren't regretting it tomorrow. You can always become fit, join recreation sports leagues, get LASIK eye surgery and may be join military as a physician or another skilled professional?

[Anonymous]

Also sports are overrated and video games aren't all bad. Keeping a balance helps.

[Anonymous]

Other kids did not necessarily have better judgement than you. They had different parents, maybe, who made those choices for that.

That can cause its own resentment…but the point is you did not choose your parents or your childhood environment. Now you have control of your life and many many years to pursue a thousand paths. That is a great opportunity.

Perhaps consider therapy if you need help feeling positive about your future.

[Anonymous]

Even if you had done those things - would it have made a difference?

What you learn (or don't learn) in elementary school or middle school wouldn't likely have a major impact on how hard you had to study in high school - maybe math? But not any significant impact.

What would you have done to correct myopia that would allow yon to join the military? Do you mean Lasik when you were still young enough to enlist? You could have also been severely injured in the military.

Sports - you could have done significant damage to your musculoskeletal system that could impact your range of motion and comfort.

It's easy to think different choices could have led to a better outcome - but absent seriously poor decisions (heavy drug use, illegal activity, very risky behavior) there would be pluses and minuses in your alternate life.

[Anonymous]

OP, you are teetering on focusing on the wrong thing - letting yourself off-the-hook for the present based on some excuse involving a narrative of your past.

All that matters is now. Be a success in the now. It's hard. It's scary. It's being an adult. You can do it.

[Anonymous]

You're right, OP. You should have manipulated your nuclei as a blastocyst, even before implantation, and corrected those myopia genes, and all the rest of that slacker genetic profile.

For shame. You will never amount to anything.

You're doomed to posting about your failed military opportunity forever on DCUM, like you've been doing these past few years... yep, I recognize you.

[Anonymous]

Oh, hon. It's ok. Give yourself some grace. And consider today Your Day One of a new life (complete with theme music.)