What are you wistful you will never do, be or see?

[CoddlingMolly]

It's hard to explain what I mean but I'll try!

One relating to the future...I feel sad that I won't be around when humans inevitably connect with some other form of life or some incredible space discovery.

There's one regret I have about the past...That I wasn't around for the hippie era.

One that's kind of odd and I can't put my finger on why I feel like this but...I was a teenager in the late 90s/early 2000s and I always had this weird regret that I couldn't ever experience being an American high school kid or going to an American college. Nit sure why but that's really strongly connected to that era and my age then.

Just wondering whether anyone else gets these wistful thoughts!

I was scuba diving in the Maldives when a whale shark ambled by. Not quite tourist, but not quite your scenario either.

Oh wow @HappiestSleeping, that would do me, you are blessed!

I guess it isn't quite a whale either, but still pretty special. This one was only a baby too. Almost posed for me.

will never get married and raise a family with a partner.

Will never have a great paying career.

wish I hadnt taken my college boyfriend for granted.

I didn't know that, thanks for the info!

The closure of the Finland land crossing keeps being extended, but if it stays closed then another possibility is to get a connecting flight at Istanbul. There have been some stories about Russian airlines being less safe now, due to sanctions preventing parts buying which is making maintenance difficult - I don't know whether there's any truth to that, but if it's a concern then Turkish Airlines operates along the whole route.

Awww, so 😔. Its not too late!!!! ❤️

You couldn't pay me to fly on a Russian airline right now! They are far less safe because they can't do the proper maintenance because of the sanctions.

I'm glad I went to Russia some years ago (three times in fact, twice as part of my studies and once for an Erasmus trip), they were amazing experiences. Always wanted to do the trans-siberian railway though (did a night train going from Moscow back to Finland and that was brilliant itself), and wistful that I probably won't get to do that, because I won't go to Russia now, not unless a massive change in regime happens there.

I really wish my dad was still here.

I wish I'd appreciated my body and fitness, and not put six stone on.

I love my career but I'd still love to know how my preferred career would have panned out.

I occasionally wonder what it would have been like to have a daughter.

Wish I’d had more grass stains.

Same, and Nirvana for me as Kurt Cobain's sad passing was when I was 2.
And that I didn't go off travelling somewhere when I was in my teens.

I lived in California with my parents for a year when I was 10. It was awful.

I was put with kids 3 years older as their education system at the time was very different to ours. 10 yr olds and 13 yr olds are v different - and I found the cultural differences very hard too. When they realised I didn’t know the words to the Star Spangled Banner I was outcast as a weirdo and poked fun at because of my English accent. I had no friends. I ran away from home twice because I was so miserable.

I was uprooted from a happy life in England where I was clever, popular and good at sports and moved to a country where I was outcast, had to relearn alien sports and stand up in front of the class weekly and do presentations. I just remember abject misery.

I swore I’d never put my own DC through it.

I had one sliding doors moment when the whole trajectory of my life altered in one day.
I was due to go abroad to work on a project which would have been a spring board to sleepers... but a serious injury was inflicted on me which took a year to recover from. The opportunity was gone and I had to do something completely different.
Sometimes I wistfully wonder what my other life would have been like. Luckily I'm (now) happy with what I've got so all's well that ends well, and I have a lovely DH and children so very lucky... but I occasionally wonder how the other story would have turned out!
It's not often you get one single moment in life when you can pinpoint everything changed.

Sleepers = allsorts

It is interesting reading this thread. There are always those 'what if' moments, however I hope that none of you a ruminating on a life unlived. Some years ago, I heard the expression 'happiness is not a future event' and it really hit me. The amount of times I've thought "if only this, then I'll be happy", and I was looking at life the wrong way.

I wish you all health and happiness.

Agree @HappiestSleeping ☺️ invest your energy in what you have.
My what ifs are purely in the spirit of the thread, just a nice little daydream sometimes

I realise this is not a very Mumsnet thing to say but there is a whole world of ethical non monogamy out there which you may wish to read about if you haven’t. It’s about accepting the importance of your main relationship while accepting also that it doesn’t give you some things, and proceeding through communication and respect to come to an agreement.

@Ecstaticmotionoops wrong thread, nothing to see here.

Oops, I'll get that taken off.

Every time I go into an empty Boots or WH Smith I’m wistful that I’ll never see those bustling busy high streets again. Pavements and shops full of people out on Saturday.

Out of town retail parks aren’t quite the same…

I had an opportunity when just post-uni and single to travel abroad and pursue a 'one that got away' romance - but I'd also just started a fling with an uni friend, was dirt broke and in a bit of a 'what now?' crisis point in life. I didn't make the trip, the fling with the uni friend turned into a proper relationship, and now 15 years later we have two kids and a rocky relationship. I did meet up with the 'one that got away' some years later, but of course was in a cohabiting relationship by then (pre kids though) so nothing happened. I would never regret my kids, but I do sometimes (often) wonder what my life would have been like if I'd found the money somehow and made the trip. Probably a fling and then nothing, but maybe a great love, who knows?

Contra to the above, I wish I'd been single more. Far too many chunks of my life where I could have been achieving great things were instead dominated by the men I was with, their needs and wants. Looking back all my happiest, healthiest times were when I've been single or at least living alone. I don't think I am capable of being healthy in a relationship. Men drain me, and I allow them to.

I was offered a job at GCHQ - it was an incredibly competitive application process and the opportunities were enormous. But the offer came JUST as the Snowden revelations broke, as a lefty in a very lefty friendship group I couldn't imagine telling my friends that I was going to work for the devil(!) - also my partner didn't want to leave London (see above) - so I turned the offer down. Still not sure if that was the right decision or not, but I could have had an incredible career if I'd said yes. Instead I've moved from dullish job to dullish job, I'm professionally qualified but I'm never going to set the world on fire.

Essentially I wish I'd been more self-focused, more selfish, more sure of what I wanted or willing to explore it instead of building my entire life around a desire to be loved.

I dreamed of living in New York in my 20s

@Lemonyyy @ChristmasFluff I've decided I'm going to still have the random sex and we'll all just have to cope with my mid-life post-baby body instead. 😂

Yes, the insurance company is called "High Risk Voyager".

I thought the prices were very reasonable.

Mine went as part of the "£10 POM" scheme back in the day. They came back 7 years later My younger sibling was born there so moved over on her Australian passport 20 years ago. I've been over 3 times since and each time I have silently cursed my parents for not staying out there. So many happy childhood memories.