Can you pick one minute or action in the past - that if done differently would impact your entire life?
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TV ClubHouse: Archives: 2003 January: Can you pick one minute or action in the past - that if done differently would impact your entire life?
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Archive through December 31, 2002 25   01/07 07:35am

Ginger1218

Tuesday, December 31, 2002 - 07:05 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Come on, I know you have better communication skills (laughing)

Kstme

Tuesday, December 31, 2002 - 07:24 am EditMoveDeleteIP
(looking for GAL's jaw...) Ginger, if I pull out my Woodstock tapes?...LOL

Two split-second decisions changed the course of my life.

I turned down a "recommendation" and scholarship to the Amercian Academy of Dramatic Arts. Didn't think I was worthy enough. I was 18.

I put our house in Seattle up for sale while my dh was at work. I told him we were moving to Vegas. I was on Xanax! He's still here but the Xanax is LONG GONE!

Marysafan

Tuesday, December 31, 2002 - 07:43 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I was 18 having graduated from high school, and working in the hospital to see if I liked it enough to pursue a career in nursing. One of my co-workers had recently retired from the Navy and had me convinced that I should enlist in the Navy and pursue my career from that direction (this was during the Vietnam war).

I did a lot of soul searching and decided he was right. I wanted out of the mining community I was born into and I really wanted to go and take care of the boys who had no choice but to serve. I felt that I had a lot to offer the Navy.

I was working up the courage to tell my parents who weren't going to like the idea one bit...when I got a phone call from my best friends boyfriend who had been a pain in my butt ever since I first met him. He was home on leave from Navy boot camp and my best friend was away at college. He asked me if I would like to go out and get a coke and talk. I had lots of questions for him about the Navy...but he had other ideas.

He and my best friend had already decided to go their separate ways. We stayed out unitl 4:00 am talking...at one point long after midnight...he leaned over and kissed me. That one kiss changed my whole life for ever. I knew right then and there that he was "the one." Six months later, I flew out to San Diego to marry him.

If you have seen the movie, "You've got Mail"...there is this scene at the end where Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan kiss. When I saw that scene, I knew exactly how that felt...that exact moment when you realize for the first time...that the biggest pain in your butt...turns out to be the love of your life.

It's quite a startling revelation!

Ginger1218

Tuesday, December 31, 2002 - 08:21 am EditMoveDeleteIP
This is a great thread for learning about people here in a different way than people just telling their vital statistics - isn't it????

Gadzooks

Tuesday, December 31, 2002 - 11:51 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I moved to the city for college and worked there for a year after graduation, but then I took a job offer close to mom's house and moved back in with her. Now I'm 35 and still living at home. I've never been on a date in my life and have surrendered to being a spinster. I just wonder if things would have been different if I wouldn't have moved back home.

Juju2bigdog

Wednesday, January 01, 2003 - 06:13 am EditMoveDeleteIP
RG, despite your rough upbringing, you would have been way worse off. You know that. You might not even be alive.

Jed245

Tuesday, January 07, 2003 - 06:02 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Well A moment or action in the past if done differently would impact my entire life.

I got to meet Stephanie Powers. I think the moment that could have been done differently that would have impacted my entire life would have to be the moment I met Stephanie Powers. It was at a locally hosted circus of the stars.

I was in a hallway getting some popcorn and I walked down the hall with my (I was a kid) Third grade teacher. Stephanie Powers was in the hall and she shook my hand and asked me if I was a fan of her show. I said yes it's heart to heart right? And I called her Jennifer Heart. She said yes and smiled and patted my shoulder.

I walked down the hall back to my seat.

My whole life would have been alot different if she had adopted me and moved me to the high life of holywood... pampered me with money and spent it to my hearts desire. But, alas things didn't happen that way for some reason? I can't understand it either cause I was a cute kid. :o)


j/k everyone sorry hehe I'm in a silly mood. :o)


Jed.

Ginger1218

Tuesday, January 07, 2003 - 06:06 am EditMoveDeleteIP
LMAO Jed, you are too funny.

Webkitty

Tuesday, January 07, 2003 - 06:21 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Jed!! Your seriously cracking me up!! LOL!

Bastable

Tuesday, January 07, 2003 - 07:35 am EditMoveDeleteIP
This thread is absolutely fascinating! I love it! I'm writing all sorts of novels in my head! More! More stories!

Djgirl5235

Tuesday, January 07, 2003 - 10:32 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I definitely have a couple:

When I was 21, I was dating a guy who decided to take a job about an hour and a half away from our town. I decided to move with him and start a new life there with him. About a year later, I kicked him out, and moved on with my life, and eventually to what's going on recently with my new home, wonderful bf, and just a very happy, fulfilling life.

I think that it's fascinating how the decisions you make in your life map the way for future occurrences... For instance, if I hadn't decided to take the position I just left with my previous company, I never would have met the love of my life... If he hadn't decided to answer the email that I sent him, we wouldn't be with each other today... (By the way, if you want to know about that story - check out: DjGirl's best date

Northstar

Tuesday, January 07, 2003 - 12:15 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Maybe not my entire life, but certainly the last dozen years or so....I filed my paperwork for a State Park job a couple days too late. So I didn't get that decent paying job, where the money would have been used to help pay for classes at the private college where I'd been accepted for fall term. Instead, my sister, who was working in Alaska on the oil spill job, offered me some floor space for the summer. I bought a round trip ticket, packed two bags, and farmed out my cat to a friend the summer. I had a series of awful temp positions before landing an acceptable office job. The owner of this company was part owner of an engineering firm, to where I was transfered, where I met and worked with a guy who eventually became my DH. I eventually earned a degree and sometimes volunteer at REI trail building parties. Oh, and after a year and a half apart, which included a detour through Nome (another story), my big black cat and I were finally reunited. So, sometimes the results of procrastinating aren't always bad. Sometimes just different.

Bastable

Tuesday, January 07, 2003 - 08:09 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
This makes me wonder what kinds of things I've done that seemed trivial to me, but ended up changing OTHER people's lives.

I once told a guy casually at a bar in Sydney that I had recently quit my job to go backpacking around the world. The next day, I bumped into him on the road and he told me that he'd quit his job that day and bought a plane ticket, I'd so inspired him!

"A butterfly flaps its wings," you know?

Northstar

Tuesday, January 07, 2003 - 08:21 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Oh Bastable, the gifts we give when we're not looking. It happens to be a reocurring topic of conversation with my friends.

Whit4you

Tuesday, January 07, 2003 - 09:49 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Everytime I read the title of this thread ... I think... can I respond in 10,000 words or less? LOL.

Most here who know me know I made one single decision... comment... joke... that cost me EVERYTHING... and I just made the final payment on the finacial aspect of it... so incredibly awesome to finally stop LITERALLY paying... monthly for one moment in time.

I guess I only hope that someday... and it is possible.... that SOMEDAY... something will happen or I will be able to do something... to make one moment and all that followed have been worth it.

When I was a cute lil blonde 23 yr old named BUNNY (yes that WAS my name) my friends used to say "Someday I will say "I knew you when" " .... I have serious doubts NOW because of that one life altering moment, that their saying will ever hold true... but it's still remotely possible and if so ... I just hope it's enough to make me not regret livng a living-hell for a few years.

I am only saying it's just remotely possible... k... but there is still the possibility in all the years left that I won't have to spend the rest of my life paying for and regretting that one decision that one moment in time.

Syncronicty...

99.9% of those I've touched and met and gotten to know since that day... I wouldn't had it not happened.... I may touch someone...effect someone... who MAY be the person THEY percieved me to be... and *I* may make their perceptions possible through the way I touch that person.

I don't believe 'everything happens for a reason' - never have. BUT - I do believe that anythings possible and it still is, it just may be taking a different form NOW.

6 degrees of seperation... the amount of people I've touched in the past 5 years who've touched someone else... one never knows.

I am serious when I say I think the chances are remote...extremely remote... but I do think it's possible that someday I may not spend every waking moment regretting my one mistake. And if that day never comes... then it doesn't but at least I am now done LITERALLY paying for it monthly... never ealized how incredibly awesome it would feel lol.

I can pick the 1 minute that cost me my future, my dreams, my goals, my sanity and more $$ then I can count...

I doubt anyone in history will ever replicate the moment... but the moments after... I can give advice on...

But that would take another 10,000 word post lol.

The moral of my post if you didn't pick up on it....

is that even though I made a mistake - had one minute.. that cost me EFVERYTHING... I still belive it's remotely possible that in the end... it might be for the best... something that would have never happened had THAT not happened... could happen in the future... to make even something that incredibly horrible worth it.

Moral I guess - never give up hope?

Or something along those lines LOL.

Ginger1218

Wednesday, January 08, 2003 - 05:46 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Whit, for me it was that one split second as well. Changed my whole life around. I don't know what you are referring to regarding yourself, but I know how dramatic one second can just change or destroy the whole life you thought you were going to live. I do wish I could redo it all over again. I wish I could say "Do Over" like we did as kids. There are a lot of memories I would not want to part with, but my life would have been so much easier if I did not make the decision I did.

Bastable

Wednesday, January 08, 2003 - 06:54 am EditMoveDeleteIP
It's much easier to pinpoint the moments that had negative effects. The moments that have wonderful effects usually pass unnoticed forever. So even if you have one bad moment to regret, you probably have thousands of secret miracles to be thankful for.