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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 8,893
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 8,893 |
Every time I think about one of those "what ifs", I look at my wife and kids and know that had I changed anything at all the likelihood is that I'd not have them.
For all the bumps, and pitfalls, and crashes along the road to this point, if the choice were to change anything along the way and avoid any/all of those, but not have them - I'll take them and what came every single time. This in spades...All the twists and turns brought me to where I am now. I would be afraid to change any of it...
One man with courage makes a majority....
~Molɔ̀ːn Labé Skýla~
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 8,514
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 8,514 |
I would have married the other one.
**********************
[the member formerly known as fluffy}
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Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 30,945
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 30,945 |
I would finish my degree 25 years earlier and go into the Army as an Officer, not enlisted, but be sure to stay in the same branch, Intelligence.
You didn't use logic or reason to get into this opinion, I cannot use logic or reason to get you out of it.
You cannot over estimate the unimportance of nearly everything. John Maxwell
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Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 17,104
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 17,104 |
Just about everything. Been married for over 20 years to a fun nazi/nun.
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 15,640
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 15,640 |
After he died, I got my father's service record from WWII where he was the Engineering Officer of an LST in the Southwest Pacific. I wish I had gotten it while he was still alive so I could have asked him, "what does this mean?", or "what was going on here?"
After 21 years active duty in the Navy, I can sorta figure out what was going on but it would have been nice to hear it from the "horse's mouth".
Indirectly, my 21 year Navy career was due to his service in WW II.
NRA Life,Endowment,Patron or Benefactor since '72.
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Joined: May 2002
Posts: 9,977
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 9,977 |
A few months ago I was confiding with a friend about somethings in my past and it felt good to get it off my chest. An iffy relationship I had when I was in my 20s resulted in a child I never got to know and I felt that if I had guidance at that time in my life it wouldnt have happened.
I told my friend that I wish I had a time machine. She asked me what I would change. I thought about it and told her I wouldnt change anything. I then told her I wish I could go back and talk to the young man I was then with what I know now. She said would the young man listen to you? I said probably not.
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Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 42,729
Campfire 'Bwana
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OP
Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 42,729 |
Zero. It has been a great experience all the way around. Ed, I'll admit, of all the people I know, if I could accuse one or two of doing it all the RIGHT WAY the first time... I'd have to pick you as one of them...
"Minus the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the Country" Marion Barry, Mayor of Wash DC
“Owning guns is not a right. If it were a right, it would be in the Constitution.” ~Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
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Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 5,490
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 5,490 |
I wish I had loved and been more patient with my children.
I wish I had spent more time with my mother and taken better care of her.
Other than that, I will attone for my sins when I meet my maker.
Bob
Enjoy life now -- it has an expiration date.
~Molɔ̀ːn Labé Skýla~
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Joined: May 2016
Posts: 60,270
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: May 2016
Posts: 60,270 |
I would be more patient with my kids. It's really the one thing I regret is that I did not have enough patience with them when they were growing up. Oh, wow. Yes X10.
I am MAGA.
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 2,776
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 2,776 |
deleted
Last edited by stantdm; 12/02/16.
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Joined: May 2016
Posts: 60,270
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: May 2016
Posts: 60,270 |
My folks are still alive, but by God, if they want to brew up a pot of coffee and visit a while you [bleep] better do it.
Sometimes it kills me to stop, but I reckon it's worth it
Youse guys don't be stupid and end up like your friends that regret not spending more time with your folks.
I am MAGA.
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Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 42,729
Campfire 'Bwana
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OP
Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 42,729 |
I would be a chitload better husband and father. I allowed my 'need' for solitude in the field to have precedent over time with family.
I'd work long hours in construction all week so my family had all they needed and spend the weekends with a pack, gun, rod, binos... I was a great guy, didn't drink, go to the bar, chase women, beat the kids... I was an idiot...
One year I decided I would hunt every weekend from August archery deer to Feb javalina, birds, bear, varmint calling, elk, whatever... I almost made it, I only missed two weekends... looking back I can see what I really missed.
My wife would joke to other people that she saved me from being a hermit... hey, she knew how I was before we got married... what a self absorbed pigfucking excuse.
After 20 years I took her on my elk hunt, then my antelope hunt, then packing in to coues hunt, soon any hunt she wanted to. I'm the one who lost out those early years.
I really failed as a father, that is my legacy... sins of the father.
I refuse to fail anymore as a husband and won't as a grandfather... it'll never be enough.
Kent well reading into it, i have a pretty good idea of why you wrote what you wrote. But I also know you sure as heck are not "failing" these days. You are one of the most giving individuals i have ever ran across. Everybody around you knows that. Amen to that! I've met a lot of unbelievable really great people via the campfire and in my travels... But Kent, I admit, I always love spending time around you and your wonderful wife Cheryl...( hope I spelled that correctly)... you owe no one an apology my friend....for anything..
"Minus the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the Country" Marion Barry, Mayor of Wash DC
“Owning guns is not a right. If it were a right, it would be in the Constitution.” ~Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 6,412
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 6,412 |
If I could go back I think a vasectomy would be in order. At least until I could be better at making a living. Right now I have doomed my kids to slightly lower mediocrity type lifestyle.
I would have stood up for myself more in the Service. I can risk my life by jumping out of a perfectly good airplane but was too afraid, too stretched thin by debt to risk losing what I did have. Of course I would probably have been killed by now.
I too had married the wrong one. At least the first time.
Me solum relinquatis
Molon Labe
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Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 42,729
Campfire 'Bwana
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OP
Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 42,729 |
Yeah, I have to admit, I wish I'd have married that pretty young blue eyed Irish Blonde that I met back in college...
I am thankful for what I have.. but admit if I could do it over, I would have taken different paths...
My second wife, I wish I would have somehow known and married her the first time.. and only time, instead of who I married the first time....
Ya know, I've have a pretty successful business career... and made a lot of money along the way.... but professionally, I'd still change that route and have gone to work at St Jude's Fresh out of the service....
What I regret the most in my life?
I haven't served my fellow man and done enough good work for our Dear Lord... its not what one did in life that matters ( at least in reference to my life), its what you did for others... and in all I've done, it still isn't enough......
I think we all have been both blessed and cursed in our lives....
a few people who have posted I have had the opportunity to meet in person... and its funny, but what they posted.. I'll admit, either way... I couldn't hold them more in high esteem that I already do....
I've met a lot of guys from the campfire who I wish had been one of my brothers in life...most probably don't have a clue of how much I think of them...
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Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 29,786
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 29,786 |
Apart from being less of an arrogant prick to others when I was younger I would not change a thing as I like who and where I am.
These are my opinions, feel free to disagree.
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,816
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,816 |
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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 18,454
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 18,454 |
I wouldn't have had Taco Bell for lunch.
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 10,718
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 10,718 |
Can't change the past, learn from it.
Live in the present, enjoy it.
Plan for the future, can't avoid it. Well stated, and pretty much how I've tried to live.
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
--Winston Churchill
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