10 Things I've Done That I Wish I Hadn't & 10 Things I Didn't Do That I Wish I Did

The ones I did & wish I hadn't:

Run into those bleachers.

Used the word "love" when I really meant "like her a whole lot." What was heard and what was meant were two different things, leaving plenty of collateral damage. Of course, using the word "love" trivially on things like spaghetti and Auburn football.

New Year's Eve, 1985. From about 10PM until 5AM inclusive.

Kissed Tim's ex-girlfriend Missy...not realizing that she just might've been trying to get back at him. So I guess what I really wish was that I understood hidden agendas. Yes, he saw us, too.

Sneaking in to see Halloween when I was too young. I still have visuals of that movie on my brain's hard drive. Which, oddly, hasn't stopped me from seeing it several times since then or going to see all the other slasher movies that came out in my late teens.

Thrown the rocks at Mr. Stokes' glass bird houses. I still have no idea why I picked up the rocks and threw them.

Left the church community at age 13. I don't know what answers about death they could've given me but I shouldn't have presumed that the stupid comments made by well-intentioned people were indicative of the entire church. I wonder if they'd have given me a healthier perspective if I'd let them.

Put so much pressure on some of my high school students back in my student ministry days. They were just so gifted and talented and it seemed like the right thing to do, but I should've given them a little more freedom to be 17 and all that entails. I won't list names, but there are about 1 or 2 per year that always recoiled when I'd "challenge" them and I should've been a better student of my students.

Quit the training for running a marathon. Sure, I'd had a few injuries and such, but nothing that couldn't be overcome. I still have this nagging desire to complete a marathon because it seems, so, well...challenging in the best of ways.

Started blogging (thanks Joshua, for being my crack dealer on this one..."Just do it, man. It's free if you just go to blogspot and I can hook you up with haloscan for comments and stuff. I think people will want to read what you have to say."). I often wonder that if I didn't do this how much energy I'd have put into a book by now. It's a nice form of community and all, but I don't think it's too healthy when around 9PM some thought pops into my brain and I think, "I should definitely blog about that tomorrow morning. That should get comments up over 10." I really do feel guilty if I don't blog or start thinking about shutting down The Diner.



The ones I didn't do & wish I did:

Kept my first car and kept up with maintenance...the brown '77 Cutlass Supreme. Sure, it was a gas guzzler and at age 20 your friends don't think the car you put mag wheels and a killer stereo in is a cool as your 16 year old friends , but it's your first car and I had a lot of good times in that car with my 16 year old friends...even if it was just sitting in a parking lot with the killer stereo cranking out some AC/DC.

Made a better effort to stay friends with my high school friends after I went off to college. For some reason, I felt it was necessary to make a firm break (which is strange because I had a very positive high school experience).

Gone to the Sugar Bowl at the end of Auburn's dream season in 2004, just to see my team go undefeated. I don't ask much from my traditionally underdog college football team and all I asked was to see the go undefeated just once in my lifetime. And then I didn't go to the last game...weird.

Read all the books in high school & college English with the same sense of appreciation that I do now.

Taken my wife on a honeymoon right after we got married. We were young & broke. Sometimes things are worthy of celebration and some choices we make regarding "being wise with money" aren't necessarily good ones. While I'm on the subject of Tracy, I wish I hadn't been so adamant about the "I don't want to wreck the friendship thing" and just started dating her earlier.

Actually turn in the 2nd Executive Director at my first "career" job for the "creative accounting" she "allegedly" did. I put my family through 3 very hard financial years to salvage that ministry and restore the integrity it needed.

Made an effort to stay in the same shape I was in high school.

Kept mowing lawns instead of getting an hourly-wage job. I went from making about $15 bucks a lawn in cash to making $3.35 an hour with taxes taking out. I worked twice as long for half as much.

Moved far from extended family sooner than we did. Tracy and I had parents that cared and are nice people so it wasn't all bad, but for us, the free babysitting and Sunday dinners weren't as beneficial as becoming our own family doing our own things our own way.

Not been so parochial...but when you grow up in Alabama, for some reason, world exploration isn't valued. I mean, a big trip for us was to go to Atlanta once a year and it was only two hours away. We didn't consider any colleges or jobs or anything outside of our little region. I wish I'd been exposed to the rest of the world much sooner than I was and I wonder what I'd have done differently.