Ever wonder what it would be like if things had gone differently for you?

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Ever wonder what it would be like if things had gone differently for you?

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:31:09 AM EDT

I joined the Navy in November of 1994. I was given a medical separation before I graduated boot camp.

I was just thinking...

If I hadn't been booted out of the Navy on a medical and made it a career (as I intended to when I enlisted), then I would have 17 going on 18 years in. I would probably be a Petty Officer First Class closing in on Chief Petty Officer and I'd have about two years before I could retire. That would probably also put a big target on my back and I would probably be one of the ones they'd be looking to cut before I could retire and cost the government money for the rest of my life. That'd be a pisser, 18 years in the Navy and then a firm handshake and a "Thanks for your service, adios sailor!"

Anyways, just an interesting thought.

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:32:24 AM EDT

[#1]

It really wasn't that interesting...

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:33:07 AM EDT

[#2]

Quoted:

It really wasn't that interesting...

It's interesting to me.

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:33:18 AM EDT

[#3]

Yeah pretty much every day.

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:34:10 AM EDT

[#4]

I often wonder what it would be like to have a triple digit IQ, hair on my head, a bigger willy, and not have breath and flatulence that could strip radiation shielding clean off.

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:34:32 AM EDT

[#5]

Id be on the short list for my E-7, getting ready to PCS from Hunter Army Airfield. I threw it all away to sample the fed side, and now work with what Ive got.

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:36:04 AM EDT

[#6]

When I get bummed about the good things that might've been, I console myself with all the bad stuff that also might've been.

Missed chances aren't always good ones.

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:40:03 AM EDT

[#7]

I've only been on this rock 24 years.

I guess I could have studied harder in school, then gone on to UF or FSU like most of the "smart kids" in my graduating class... then majored in English or some bullshit and been poor

As it is now I joined the USN instead, have been making (and saving! Mostly...) overseas pay for going on 5 years now. I'm working on my undergrad online in a major I don't much care for, but I'll have the GI Bill available for grad school. I think so far I've made the right choices, just generally for dumb reasons at the time.

10 years from now I may be kicking myself for getting out, but my money is on no.

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:43:38 AM EDT

[#8]

No. I can just look at my brothers life.

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:48:10 AM EDT

[#9]

the grass is always geener, until you get there

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:48:49 AM EDT

[#10]

The Navy isn't to the point where they're tossing out random folks ... they're tossing out those who aren't performing up to standards.

The way I see it there are four levels of performance:

Outstanding/Superior - Those guys that are "gung-ho", lead, learn, and run the Navy
Good/Satisfactory - Those guys that follow orders, stay out of trouble, generally can be counted upon, and make a living in the Navy.
Bad/Substandard - Those guys that have to be told to do everything, watched over constantly, never lift a finger to do anything more than they have to do.
Ugly/"Trouble Makers" - Those that cause descent in the ranks, go out of their way to screw up, and will never stay out of trouble for an entire enlistment let alone a career.

The "Trouble Makers" get kicked out but the "substandard" guys for the most part don't - as long as they stay out of trouble they're kept on earning 3.4 evals. Back during the Clinton administration there were lots of cuts as Clinton scraped ship-after-ship built during the Reagan era. There were too many Sailors and not enough ships and the cuts came hot-n-heavy. Not much difference with Obama at the helm.

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:50:33 AM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
I joined the Navy in November of 1994. I was given a medical separation before I graduated boot camp.

I was just thinking...

If I hadn't been booted out of the Navy on a medical and made it a career (as I intended to when I enlisted), then I would have 17 going on 18 years in. I would probably be a Petty Officer First Class closing in on Chief Petty Officer and I'd have about two years before I could retire. That would probably also put a big target on my back and I would probably be one of the ones they'd be looking to cut before I could retire and cost the government money for the rest of my life. That'd be a pisser, 18 years in the Navy and then a firm handshake and a "Thanks for your service, adios sailor!"

Anyways, just an interesting thought.

You really think you would have made it that far?

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:51:17 AM EDT

[#12]

I sometimes wonder what life would have been like if Cindy Crawford and Christie Brinkley had a fight to the death over me...but mostly I stick with reality.

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:52:44 AM EDT

[#13]

Every damn day.

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:54:09 AM EDT

[#14]

If I could've just instilled a little more discipline in my band mates...

Eh, but that was 40+ years ago. Who knows? Many unimagineable twists and turns could have been if just a thing or two had been different.

So I don't think about it much.

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:54:14 AM EDT

[#15]

I came very close to joining the military on several occasions in the late 80's and early 90's. I sometimes wonder where that would have taken me.

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:56:07 AM EDT

[#16]

Yeah, but try not to. It's always greener on the other side.

The trick is to take the time+energy spent on 'wondering' and apply that to the here/now/future.

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of."
"If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality."
"Lost time is never found again."
"Time is money."
"You may delay, but time will not."
-Benjamin Franklin

It really helps to have faith, I've found

Posted: 2/18/2012 10:56:37 AM EDT

[#17]

I feel like a victim of happenstance,every time things start looking up in my life it go's to shit.Now I just resign myself as it's a way of life,two steps forward eight backward,and it's been this way for closing on 50 years.Cant complain to much as I have my health,OH wait no I don't,well at least I have some money,OH wait I don't have that either.Well I least I found true love....Na,missed the boat on that one too.

Well maybe things will start looking up so I will be ready for the crash.......again!!!

Life's a bitch and then you die.
Things aren't that bad but it definitely could be way better and I never thought as a kid it would turn out the way it has.Stiff upper lip and all that.

Posted: 2/18/2012 11:01:56 AM EDT

[#18]

Lots of forks in lifes roads that could have gone in completely different directions from this one.

Posted: 2/18/2012 11:44:54 AM EDT

[#19]

Invictus
By William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

Posted: 2/18/2012 11:53:23 AM EDT

[#20]

I just wish I never broke my leg and fucked up my shoulder. Who knows where I might of been in 3 years if it wernt for those injuries.

Posted: 2/18/2012 11:55:53 AM EDT

[#21]

I've always wondered if I had picked this girl instead of that girl, and so on. I'm sure my life would have turned out drastically different. Not necessarily better, but different.

Posted: 2/18/2012 11:57:48 AM EDT

[#22]

I wonder occasionally what things would have been like if my dad hadn't died when I was 14, or if I'd gone straight to college after graduating high school.

Posted: 2/18/2012 12:09:35 PM EDT

[#23]

Every time my mind starts to drift off that way, I just think of this guy and it promptly stops.

"How much you wanna make a bet I can throw a football over them
mountains?... Yeah... Coach woulda put me in fourth quarter, we would've
been state champions. No doubt. No doubt in my mind.
"

Posted: 2/18/2012 12:11:13 PM EDT

[#24]

Uncle Rico: So what do you think?
Kip: It's pretty cool, I guess.
Uncle Rico: Ohhhh, man I wish I could go back in time. I'd take state.
Napoleon Dynamite: This is pretty much the worst video ever made.
Kip: Napoleon, like anyone can even know that.
Uncle Rico: You know what, Napoleon? You can leave.
Napoleon Dynamite: You guys are retarded!
Uncle Rico: Back in '82, I used to be able to throw a pigskin a quarter mile.
Kip: Are you serious?
Uncle Rico: I'm dead serious.

Posted: 2/18/2012 12:12:18 PM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:

I often wonder what it would be like to have a triple digit IQ, hair on my head, a bigger willy, and not have breath and flatulence that could strip radiation shielding clean off.

You mean you don't want to be British?

Edit;

Posted: 2/18/2012 12:14:19 PM EDT

[#26]

Sometimes I wonder how things could have been different if I had done this or that, but over the years I have concluded it is largely a waste of time.

Posted: 2/18/2012 12:18:28 PM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:
I would probably be a Petty Officer First Class closing in on Chief Petty Officer and I'd have about two years before I could retire. That would probably also put a big target on my back and I would probably be one of the ones they'd be looking to cut before I could retire and cost the government money for the rest of my life. That'd be a pisser, 18 years in the Navy and then a firm handshake and a "Thanks for your service, adios sailor!"

Sounds just like the NYPD.

Posted: 2/18/2012 12:30:45 PM EDT

[#28]

"Ever wonder what it would be like if things had gone differently for you?"

Nope. No use wondering about what could have been. Ya play the cards you're dealt. No more, no less. TT

Posted: 2/18/2012 12:45:28 PM EDT

[#29]

I think about it.

I get pissed off.

I think about something else.

Posted: 2/18/2012 12:46:19 PM EDT

[#30]

sometimes i wonder what it would be like if i did not yell out "hey, yall bitches want to fuck?"

Posted: 2/18/2012 12:46:31 PM EDT

[#31]

In 1983 I tried out for a role in the movie "The Goonies", and lost the part to Corey Feldman. (big surprise he got it..

)

Had I gotten that part I would now be a semi-famous star and have Senior Staff power here on ARF.com

(for those that have always wondered who Aimless is in real life...hint hint)

Posted: 2/18/2012 12:49:30 PM EDT

[#32]

I have. I could have made better decisions in my life but I am quite comfortable where I am now so I don't pay it much mind.

Posted: 2/18/2012 12:54:17 PM EDT

[#33]

Quoted:

Uncle Rico: So what do you think?

Kip: It's pretty cool, I guess.

Uncle Rico: Ohhhh, man I wish I could go back in time. I'd take state.

Napoleon Dynamite: This is pretty much the worst video ever made.

Kip: Napoleon, like anyone can even know that.

Uncle Rico: You know what, Napoleon? You can leave.

Napoleon Dynamite: You guys are retarded!

Uncle Rico: Back in '82, I used to be able to throw a pigskin a quarter mile.

Kip: Are you serious?

Uncle Rico: I'm dead serious.

Posted: 2/18/2012 1:00:20 PM EDT

[#34]

I went in in 1993 and A few of my friends are within 3 years of retirement. None of them are being pushed out. So give that up, unless you only aspired to be a second class petty officer than maybe. They are looking forward to a life as civilians and to move from Cali and Washington state.

Posted: 2/18/2012 1:13:31 PM EDT

[#35]

Quoted:
Sometimes I wonder how things could have been different if I had done this or that, but over the years I have concluded it is largely a waste of time.

This is the truth.

Posted: 2/18/2012 1:15:21 PM EDT

[#36]

I wonder every fucking day. Man I fucked up a lot of shit in my life......

Posted: 2/18/2012 1:19:54 PM EDT

[#37]

Not worth worrying about. Some of the decisions you did make may have been the best you could, and were the right ones. Things can always be a heck of a lot worse.

Posted: 2/18/2012 7:03:20 PM EDT

[#38]

Quoted:

Quoted:

I joined the Navy in November of 1994. I was given a medical separation before I graduated boot camp.

I was just thinking...

If I hadn't been booted out of the Navy on a medical and made it a career (as I intended to when I enlisted), then I would have 17 going on 18 years in. I would probably be a Petty Officer First Class closing in on Chief Petty Officer and I'd have about two years before I could retire. That would probably also put a big target on my back and I would probably be one of the ones they'd be looking to cut before I could retire and cost the government money for the rest of my life. That'd be a pisser, 18 years in the Navy and then a firm handshake and a "Thanks for your service, adios sailor!"

Anyways, just an interesting thought.

You really think you would have made it that far?

I guess it would depend on whether or not I stayed in. Aside from the Navy, I've succeeded at everything I've done.

Maybe that's why I still think about it. It's the one big failure in my life that I can never correct.

Posted: 2/18/2012 7:04:13 PM EDT

[#39]

Every single day, most of it is because my teenage years were all fucked up and my family was totally broken. Some of it is because I am a contemplative person. I like to think about my life and my experiences and where I am going in light of those experiences.