There are choices I made when I was younger that I look back on with regret. Quitting German classes in college about the same time I started dreaming in German was a big one. I realized it a couple of years later, but by then it was too late because my university was going to make me retest for placement and I couldn't afford to waste money on the test.
Another big regret I have was a decision I made when I was 12 to quit dance.
When I was very small, maybe 5 years old, my mom signed me up for dance. I was good, too. The teacher broke us up by skill level and I was always in the top group that performed the more difficult routines. I also picked them up quickly. Most importantly, though--I had fun.
But my mom had signed me up for dance every year from the time I was 5, and at 12 (with hormones raging), anything my mom wanted me to do, I wasn't going to do. Although I guarantee you I didn't think of it that way at the time. At the time I was certain I was making up my own mind on what I wanted to do. :-/
I quit other things around that same time--girl scouts and orchestra (I played the viola). I don't regret either of those things, though.
Things like this are one of the reasons why I have this fantasy of going back and reliving my life knowing then what I know now. I would make totally different decisions and I wouldn't worry about some of the crap that I lost sleep over back then. But (of course) a lot of people wish for this.
This makes me wonder, though, about what my characters regret. What would they change about their lives? I actually think this might be a new question I put to them because the answers would be interesting.
