What has been the WORST MISTAKE of YOUR LIFE?

Jerry Bernard wrote:Please share so that others may avoid your error.

Easy: choosing, in 1999, to start drinking poppy tea. Today it's much harder to get poppy straw (raw, dried poppy pods) but back then you could find crates of dried poppies at wholesale florist suppliers for cheap. I drank a tea made from the stuff daily for about 5 years.

Withdrawal was hell on earth (and takes much longer than kicking heroin because poppy straw contains not only morphine but codeine and thebaine) and only then did the extent of my problems become clear: I had damaged a disc in my lower back and had never known it; I had significant plantar fasciitis and had never felt it; and on quitting I developed excessive sweating which, even now, 10 years later, still flares up from time to time. And who knows how much pesticide I may have ingested... if I get cancer early, I won't be surprised. Today I live with chronic back pain that I treat mostly with stretching & yoga, but long runs are no longer possible for me. At age 35 my doctors tell me I present as a patient who is 15 years older.

TL;DR: DON'T DO OPIATES. I'm still paying the bill for those 5 years of fun.

That's the worst mistake of your life? Man, you've had it easy. I hope you don't face any adversity later on, you won't know how to deal with it.

I had a crack at getting hired to draw for Marvel Comics in 1983. I shoulda gone for it, but for a variety of reasons I stuck to underground/alternative comics.

It's been artistically fantastic, but I've had to earn the bulk of my money by starting a screen print business instead. I really can't complain, but I'll always wonder about the road not taken.

As for running, I'd have presumably been much faster than 1:57/4:01 1500 if I had not been a border line drunk all through college.

when i was a kid my father felt unwell and my family told him to go to the Hospital. I wanted him to stay and pressed him a bit to do so and he did. He died the next day

I decided to go to a coffee shop to study for my MCAT. Some guy spent three hours staring at me. I think he even took a picture of me. He also went out to my car. He came over later and told me I had "swimmer shoulders" and invited me to some guys house.

He gave me his number and I decided to be polite and text him. I even told him that I would meet him. Then one of my runner friends directed me to these boards and now I am scared he is stalking me. I am afraid to leave the house. I need advice... What should I do now?

Worst mistake of my life, eating a gray M&M because I couldn't tell the difference between that and a purple M&M during the million dollar give away from M&M

choosing a coaching minor over a subjective minor. So stupid

My biggest regret in life is my senior HS XC season. Everything was there for me to accomplish. I was motivated, I did all the coach's workouts, etc., but when push came to shove, in the heat of the battle I failed to CRANK the DIESEL. Life has pretty well sucked every since.

PhD wrote:

Just wait until you're finished and look at your dwindling career options. Then you will learn more about what it means to be stuck.

My PhD took 10 years to complete and I feel I wasted the best years of my life studying and being miserable. I though that employers would value the fact that I toughed it out and completed tasks that others couldn't. I was wrong.

Getting your PhD is kind of like breaking 13:30 in the 5k. It takes a ton of work to get there but it won't pay the bills at the end of the day. People also have no clue how hard it is to do.

I sincerely hope that others can learn from my mistake. Process matters more to me than results. I am pleased with all of my major life decisions except the most important one: who I married and had a child with. I failed in process by not approaching the decision rationally and analytically. Emotions are important, but should not dictate this decision. I'm now married to someone with whom I don't have enough in common, have vastly different thoughts about how to live life, and who frankly has very difficult personality traits including low conscientiousness and high neuroticism. There is no simple solution because we have a young child with special needs who would suffer adverse consequences if my wife and I were to split.

How did this happen? I think about it every day. Make important decisions with head and heart, but head first.

Decided to become a Navy pilot out of college, despite knowing next to nothing about flying, and knowing in my gut I would probably not enjoy it. Passed flight school with good grades, currently flying a suped-up 707 everyday, and I hate every second of it. Should have gone Marines, and done something I love. Never make decisions based on the expectations of others.

trying cocaine wasn't my greatest idea

WTF?! You had a damaged disc and plantar fascitis and were unaware of either. True story? I sorta want some of that junk all of a sudden.

West Virgina - no bad choose!

Coming to America, (literally coming to the United States of America, nothing to do with movie), now am stuck here and don't want to go back home, coz am loving it.[quot]Jerry Bernard wrote:

Please share so that others may avoid your error.

Can be running or non-running. or both.[/quote]

Beavus, you're an E-6b pilot aren't you?

coffee shop guy is creepy wrote:

MCAT girl wrote:

I decided to go to a coffee shop to study for my MCAT. Some guy spent three hours staring at me. I think he even took a picture of me. He also went out to my car. He came over later and told me I had "swimmer shoulders" and invited me to some guys house.

He gave me his number and I decided to be polite and text him. I even told him that I would meet him. Then one of my runner friends directed me to these boards and now I am scared he is stalking me. I am afraid to leave the house. I need advice... What should I do now?

POST OF THE YEAR

It would barely make post of the day.

PhDdude wrote:

PhD wrote:

Just wait until you're finished and look at your dwindling career options. Then you will learn more about what it means to be stuck.

My PhD took 10 years to complete and I feel I wasted the best years of my life studying and being miserable. I though that employers would value the fact that I toughed it out and completed tasks that others couldn't. I was wrong.

Getting your PhD is kind of like breaking 13:30 in the 5k. It takes a ton of work to get there but it won't pay the bills at the end of the day. People also have no clue how hard it is to do.

Love the analogy to the 13:30 5K! Yesterday we were looking over applicants to fill a position in our lab. My rankings favored those with a PhD because I have one and know what was involved. Others doing the rankings didn't care about the PhD and only looked at direct experience with the specific subject (none of the PhDs had that). One even held the PhD against them stating "I don't want somebody who just sits at a desk!"

PhDdude wrote:

PhD wrote:

Just wait until you're finished and look at your dwindling career options. Then you will learn more about what it means to be stuck.

My PhD took 10 years to complete and I feel I wasted the best years of my life studying and being miserable. I though that employers would value the fact that I toughed it out and completed tasks that others couldn't. I was wrong.

Getting your PhD is kind of like breaking 13:30 in the 5k. It takes a ton of work to get there but it won't pay the bills at the end of the day. People also have no clue how hard it is to do.

Love the analogy to the 13:30 5K! Yesterday we were looking over applicants to fill a position in our lab. My rankings favored those with a PhD because I have one and know what was involved. Others doing the rankings didn't care about the PhD and only looked at direct experience with the specific subject (none of the PhDs had that). One even held the PhD against them stating "I don't want somebody who just sits at a desk!"