If You Were Younger?

[Bentley Bullet]

What direction would you take in your life? Would it be different to the direction you have taken now?

[River Don]

Given a second chance I think i'd like to become a top flight footballer.

[Herbert Anchovy]

Interesting question. I moved to London in 1980 to find work after being laid off twice in 9 months back in Donny. I was originally going to stay here for 6 months to get some money but ended up making it a permanent home. The only thing that kept me here was that I was pretty much guaranteed work. While the rest of the country was in recession, London seemed immune to it. Quite a few times over the years I’ve regretted not moving back to Donny though. When I do go back I realise why I still miss it after all these years. Like many things, you don’t realise how much you miss something till you’ve gone.

At the same time as I moved to London, one of my mates signed up to join the navy. I went to the careers office with him and waited while he signed on the dotted line. The recruiter bloke came over to me and tried to get me to join up too! I actually sat there and seriously considered it but bottled it in the end. My pal stayed in the navy for years, saw the world countless times and had numerous experiences and adventures. If I had my time again I think that I’d like to have joined up.

[GazLaz]

The only regret I have in life is being born in Rotherham.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Went to university to be the first person iny family to get a degree.  Probably would have been better on a different path.  I actually did want to join the navy, but I have asthma so can't join the military, very frustrating.

[River Don]

I had a mate who went to uni but didn't actually follow the career path after it.

What happened was, he inherited some money and he used it borrow as much as he could on interest only loans. He did up houses, split them into bedsits and rented them to students. He continued on this path steadily building his portfolio. He ended up retiring very early and now spends most of his time sailing in the Med.

So I think, given my time over, I'd have been much less hesitant about borrowing money and invested in property too.  Though I doubt I'd have been as all in as he was.

[bahrain rover]

For me 100% wish I had travelled earlier than I did. I seem to have live my life upside down. I wish I had discovered everywhere from the Middle East to South East Asia where I now live, when I was in my late teens early 20s and done the backpacking thing.

[Draytonian III]

I’ve always regretted passing my 11+ in 1975 and going to Grammar School and looked down on by most of the “Old School “ teachers because my parents were divorced, I was the only boy in my form a one parent family. I tried at school for the first 18 months but usually got ignored by the staff, so I spent 3 and half years sat at the back of the class not really bothering, I got a couple of O levels and CSEs. On the plus side I first went to the Rovers after 6 weeks at secondary school.

[Monkcaster_Rover]

Wish I'd have put flash on my phone when I had a photo with Rob Jones in Priory after the Brentford game.

[scawsby steve]

What direction would you take in your life? Would it be different to the direction you have taken now?

I think deep down, BB, most of us would do the same things in life again, because of the impact it had on others.

For example, look at the way you and Wolfie helped the British people when you signed up in 1939.

[turnbull for england]

I'd go to Italia 90

[Bentley Bullet]

What direction would you take in your life? Would it be different to the direction you have taken now?

I think deep down, BB, most of us would do the same things in life again, because of the impact it had on others.

For example, look at the way you and Wolfie helped the British people when you signed up in 1939.

SS. You're not the first person to confuse me with Steve McQueen from The Great Escape. Likewise, I think you're confusing Wolfie with Corporal Jones out of Dad's Army.

[Herbert Anchovy]

I'd go to Italia 90

A group of Rovers did go to that tournament as I recall? I think that they wrote some articles in Raise the Roof about it.

[turnbull for england]

I'd go to Italia 90

A group of Rovers did go to that tournament as I recall? I think that they wrote some articles in Raise the Roof about it.

They did indeed and I could have gone with them . Spur of the moment decision taken when David Platt hooked it in . Didn't have the money and turned it down when I could have borrowed it , still rankles now

[mushRTID]

I would have travelled a lot more  before my kids arrived.

They are 4 and 6 months so it's going to be a long time before me and the mrs get to go see the world again.

[BillyStubbsTears]

2 months between them Mush? Christ, you work fast!

[mushRTID]

2 months between them Mush? Christ, you work fast!

Haha

[ravenrover]

I'd beg steal or borrow the money to see Dylan in 65 and 66

[GazLaz]

2 months between them Mush? Christ, you work fast!

Twins? Long labour?

[Dutch Uncle]

If I could go back in time and speak to my younger self I would desperately want to advise him that all his worst nightmares would never happen.

There are obviously some decisions I would change, but there is one standout crossroads which I reckon determined everything else in my life since. And that tough decision, taken for all the wrong and mainly negative reasons turned out to be a very good call. I was a year into a Ph.D. in Maths at Uni and was getting nowhere. A colleague showed me a newspaper job advert for a position with a department of engineers in the University of Aachen in the then West Germany – the job was for a researcher in exactly my small field (one specific computer approach/method for numerical solutions of differential equations). I did not particularly want to move abroad and did so because I thought I was failing badly (by the way I have since seen academic papers 20-30 years later which still had not solved the problem I was researching for the Ph.D.).

Best decision ever which changed my life for the very much better, and opened up so many opportunities for things I never thought of including learning languages.

[normal rules]

I’d have gone to see The Jam play live.

[Herbert Anchovy]

I’d have gone to see The Jam play live.

I was fortunate enough to see them at Wembley Arena during their farewell tour. It was a blinding gig built on angry energy. The fans were pissed off that they were splitting up. 2 thirds of the band were pissed off they were splitting up and the only person there that was pleased about it (Weller) seemed the angriest of the lot!

[wilts rover]

No not really. Like everyone else there a lots of little things that I might have done differently but overall I wouldn't have had the experiences I have had and met the people I did.

Doing what I do now people sometimes ask me if I regret not going on to university straight from school but instead becoming a bricklayer. No, not really, I loved it, worked all over the country and in Europe and I can say, I built that..and that...and that. If anything I do sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had stayed bricklaying - I would certainly have been richer.

Maybe taken up cycling seriously much earlier instead of playing football. I am a much better cyclist/mountain biker than I ever was a footballer, maybe I could have been competitive, who knows.

What I hope some of the younger posters take from this is, you don't have to be defined by the choices you make as a youngster any more, its far easier now to change direction. Dont be afraid of taking opportunities when they present themselves.

Something else you might be interested in BB (and Dutch) is that the company I work for was taken over this week by a big multi-national. One of the project ideas I have put forward is a graphical mapping project to show the actions of the units of the British Army in Burma/Far East during WW2 now we have some serious money behind us. Now that wouldn't have happened if I was still bricklaying...

[ravenrover]

My wife would love that, her Dad fought in Burma but would hardly ever talk about it. Refused his Burma Star, all we have is his bush hat and a souvenir Khukri and a few photographs of the good times he had there

[BigH]

I'd go to Italia 90

My one regret too. Should have done whatever it took to get out there, blow a stack and regret it for years to come.

[SydneyRover]

I changed careers about 5 times, took 2 years off in the middle to do building work on my house, took quite a bit of time out along the way, here and there to travel and retired early, like Dutch I shouldn't have spent so much time worrying about things that were unlikely to happen and shouldn't have spent so much time in the pub. Travel is the key that unlocked and changed my life.

[Dutch Uncle]

I changed careers about 5 times, took 2 years off in the middle to do building work on my house, took quite a bit of time out along the way, here and there to travel and retired early, like Dutch I shouldn't have spent so much time worrying about things that were unlikely to happen and shouldn't have spent so much time in the pub. Travel is the key that unlocked and changed my life.

Particularly agree with the travel aspect Sydney, and would add that living for a while in a different country gives you different perspectives on many things in life, which I found very valuable indeed. I was further fortunate to work in an international organisation for many years where I learned so much from working with people from so many countries. Also to understand how others see us.

[SydneyRover]

What direction would you take in your life? Would it be different to the direction you have taken now?

Time for the OP to give us his story eh?

[Bentley Bullet]

What direction would you take in your life? Would it be different to the direction you have taken now?

Time for the OP to give us his story eh?

I'd have just preferred to have been born rich instead of good looking and intelligent.

[Bentley Bullet]

..Mind you, two out of three ain't bad.