Netizens Found A Lot In Common With These People’s 25 Deepest Regrets

We all make mistakes. It’s part and parcel of life that we have to live and we have to learn. However, some of those lessons can be so jarring they can leave a painful reminder that lasts a lifetime.  Recently, Redditors opened up about their biggest regrets that had such long-lasting consequences. Many netizens found the incidents resonated with their own experiences and the thread quickly went viral. Scroll below to read some of the heartbreaking circumstances that came about because of careless mistakes that could have possibly been avoided if only people knew better at the time.  

#1 Lighting that first cigarette.

Image source: HellxHoundxX, Lgh_9/pexels

#2 Talking to police without a lawyer. Don’t do that, kids….

Image source: dick-nipples, RDNE Stock project/pexels

#3 Took an antibiotic for a possible infection I never had to begin with that the doctor gave me. Didn’t realize the medication was banned in certain countries and has a black box warning. Doc called a week later after I had taken it for 6 days and says I actually didn’t have an infection. Antibiotics were never necessary. I now am disabled and have full body small fiber neuropathy from it among other things at 25 years old. It affects my vision, bladder, muscles, walking, etc. nerve damage all over. Had this for 2 years now, life is a struggle unfortunately.

Image source: Magnifnik0, Ron Lach/pexels

#4 Got offered an internal promotion for double salary job as a javascript developer (I was PHP mainly at time) at UK FTSE 100 company and declined because I was humble about my skills/didn't want to cause issues. Now I'm 8 years wiser and realise no one knows what they're doing and I would've been fine with 20 hours on udemy.

Image source: jhgordy, Nicola Barts/pexels

#5 Driving drunk... Blacked out... Car totalled by train. Don't drink and drive.

Image source: MiliTerry, Taras Makarenko/pexels

#6 Mistaking long term coworkers as friends. They are not.

Image source: SmileBulky2705, CoWomen/pexels

#7 Trusting the wrong person with important secrets.

Image source: Ok_Composer_6652, Ba Tik/pexels

#8 Got stuck on my balcony before work one morning. Door latched as I shut it. Was approximately 6 feet off ground, so I decided to jump off. Landed on my feet. Grass was wet, feet slipped... Fractured three vertebrae, spent nine months in a hospital bed.

Image source: tastyNips, Andrea Piacquadio/pexels

#9 Talked a little about this in other posts, but my decision to stay and try to help my mom. After my grandmother died my cousin and I were set to inherit a house, but we gave our halves to her.

Image source: PanzerFoster, Nikolaos Dimou/pexels At the time I was living in Europe, in Budapest, for 3.5 years. I was so close to residency. Then I saw she was having trouble financially when I came to visit for a family reunion. I had a return ticket, my jobs, but I f*****g stayed because I felt bad. We set agreements, that I would pay half of everything and then later give her a bit extra so I can save to help my fiance come here. That in order for this to work, I'd like to live in the house so I'm not paying rent somewhere plus half of the bills (and I wanted to be around the dogs, which I also take care of). Then she took advantage of this by buying more things and investing in the house, which she agreed to sell because she can't afford it without someone helping her. Immediately after I didn't have a way back, things changed. She hated my now ex partner and would demand time and time again we break up, even though she was nothing but kind to her. She decided she wanted more money immediately. She has threatened to [unalive] herself by putting a gun to her head, pushed me, hit me, tried to choke me, because she would start conflicts and not let me walk away, or didn't like what I had to say. She's tried to cut me off from other parts of the family that know and want to help me. I lost everything because of this decision, but I'm slowly rebuilding, and I think next year I'll be able to find my way back, maybe to Prague this time, or back to Budapest. I don't know, I just want the life I had back, and this time she won't get to be a part of it.

#10 Trying to be someone I'm not to impress people. Turns out, being yourself is way cooler.

Image source: Odd-Bath9679

#11 Not watching a movie with my dad before he died from cancer.

Image source: Guy_Fawkz, Andrea Piacquadio/pexels My dad was months into his chemo treatments at this point, and he just asked me one day if I wanted to watch some old movies with him for a bit. I declined and said I needed to work on school stuff. I was living at home at the time, and I was taking about 15 hours of classes, so I was generally busy, but not then. It tore me apart to see my dad that way. The d***s had been rough on him, and it pained me to see him like that. My dad passed maybe a month or two later, and it is still to this day my biggest regret. We both loved movies, and I would give anything to go back and watch anything with him. I still randomly have moments of despair thinking about it, and I know he would not want me to continue beating myself up, but it's hard. Don't have regrets like me. Spend those precious moments with your loved ones.

#12 I worked at a Marine Mammal Rescue Center in Alaska.

Image source: dry6f, Molnár Tamás Photography™/pexels It could be really fun and rewarding, but the work itself was *anything* but glamarous. During the training, we were told emphatically "when approaching a rehabbing sea lion from the front, you have to hold your breath until you can get to the side - their breath will knock you out." We laughed but the teacher said "oh I'm not kidding" Should have taken it more seriously... My first week there, I approach a sea lion we're rehabbing and when I'm about 5 feet away, it opened its mouth wider than my head and let out a 4-second-long belch, as sea lions are known to do. I immediately fell to the ground puking. Couldn't think straight for 2 minutes and felt nauseous most of the rest of the day, and had to go home early. **Still** feel sick thinking of it.

#13 Giving all my best in my last company, had almost no much social life, I was a workaholic , I was like the best developer, thinking it would all result to sth eventually got laid off ??.

Image source: scot_2015, cottonbro studio/pexels

#14 Quitting college to take a management promotion at my fast food job.

Image source: emilyholt31, Kampus Production/pexels

#15 Getting breast implants. 6k, scars, scar tissue, permanently damaged nerves. Got them removed 3 years later. 2k saggy boobs. Pepperoni nipples and side boob fat.

I had decent boobs I just got peer pressured by friends who were getting their done. Image source: pure-Turbulentea

#16 I jumped in the shallow side of the pool. Was drinking and thought it was the deep end.

Image source: d3athr1d3r, Ionela Mat/pexels Tried to do a front flip and smacked my head on the bottom. Came up reaching for my head and my face flopped into my hand. I quickly held it in place against my skull and got out of the pool. We wrapped my head in a towel and I threw up. The ambulance was there within 10 minutes. They sent 2 ambulances and a fire truck and there were 10+ responders. I think they might have been bored and wanted to see the carnage lol. Anyways at the hospital my neck started hurting and they did a scan X-ray and nothing was broken, however my face was spilt from the bridge of my nose straight up my forehead then goes to the left a couple inches. Ended up getting 20 stitches to hold my forehead together and 20 staples on my head. Healed pretty good. Now I just have a scar people are scared to ask me about. I'm extremely lucky, I was able to walk out and go home about four of five hours later. I've heard so many stories since this happened to me and now I am extra cautious around pools. So yeah don't dive drunk.

#17 I worked in child care and suspected abuse. I went to the director of the childcare center and asked if I should call CPS, and she said no. I didn’t call CPS.

The little girl died about a month later. She was 2.5. I will never forgive myself for trusting someone else over my own gut judgement. Worst mistake I ever made. Image source: teastaindnotes

#18 I skipped a class for organic chemistry in college before finals. Didn't get the memo that final exams would be given in a different room. Showed up 45 minutes late and my professor wouldn't let me in. I failed the class and nearly failed out of college that semester, I was on academic probation after that.

Image source: rpm12390, Monstera Production/pexels

#19 I let go someone who was really good for me because of chronic depression and insecurities and now here I am, alone because of it.

Image source: TrixieLurker, Khoa Võ /pexels

#20 Insisted my fiancé and I should take a cruise together when she wanted to stay home. She had a polyp which was bothering her nasal passage. Turns out it wasn't a polyp, but rhabdomyosarcoma. Diagnosis was further delayed due to COVID, costing her her life.

Image source: alduin_no, cottonbro studio/pexels

#21 I didn’t ask my parents enough questions about their lives before they died. When people die, their history dies with them. Stories about them, what their lives were like, what their parents were like. It all disappears.

Ask your parents and grandparents all the things, you won’t regret it. Image source: bigthecat08

#22 When I was a kid we used to ride our bikes to the top of a hill and peddle as fast as we could down to the beginning of a sidewalk that was pushed up by tree roots and we would hit super sick jumps off them. No helmet. My bikes front wheel and handle bars became loose from the abuse and when I landed my handles were straight but the wheel sent me right into a tree. Went over the handle bars head first and hit the tree. Knocked out cold. From what people tell me my personality changed as did my penmanship, grades and everything.

Image source: Legitimate_Dare6684, Darcy Lawrey/pexels

#23 I made many mistakes growing up, but here’s one that stands out the most.

Image source: jebiga_au, Keira Burton/pexels In early high school, I hurt people emotionally through targeted bullying and social exclusion. I was picked on for many years prior to this, so it was mostly redirected anger. I hated the world and most of the people around me. However, this changed during the later years of high school and I started accepting people and vice versa. I’m not sure how this came about. I’m in my thirties now and a completely different person. I get emotional thinking of all the times I’ve made people’s lives hell for no reason, and it’s hard to forgive myself for it. If you are going or went through a tough time in school as a result of bullying, I’d like to apologise on behalf of the bullies. Most of them will certainly regret it at some point.

#24 Bring on a sleazy business partner whose shenanigans put me under. Even twenty-five years later, if he stepped in front of my car, I wouldn't even think of tapping the brakes.

Image source: AnybodySeeMyKeys, Juris Freidenfelds/pexels

#25 Dorky guy in our graphics lab at school was trying to convince us to buy Apple stock as we struggled with our POS PowerPC 6300s. "No man, they're rehiring the CEO they fired! He started the company, he's like...visionary! He's gonna resurrect them!". Riiiiiight.

Image source: sightlab, Helena Lopes/pexels