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What are your biggest regrets?


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Posted by JoeJoe on September 15, 2022 at 02:38:12

I think this might be an interesting question and maybe folks can share some thoughts and stories. The question is: what are you biggest wackywet regrets? Maybe its a time you chickened out and decided not to jump in the water. Or a time you weren't wearing the perfect clothes. Or maybe the weather or water temperature wasn't quite right. Or maybe you got caught and got in trouble. To put it another way - what's an experience where you wish you could do it over? And what would you change?

I have two examples. One happened when I was real young, still in grade school. I was at our summer church picnic and they had a dunk tank setup. They had a dunk tank every year but it had always been just for adults to get dunked. Well this year for some reason they let kids go in if they wanted to. I remember looking over and seeing this kid my age, named AJ, sitting up in the dunk tank. At first I couldn't believe it - I've always been fascinated with dunk tanks and would dream about getting to go in one. Now maybe I'd have a chance. While I was thinking about this, my friend Matt who I was hanging out with saw AJ up in the dunk tank, and instantly decided that he had to go in the dunk tank right then. And before I could even blink, Matt had somehow gotten his shoes and socks off in a split second and was sprinting as fast as he could, barefoot, across the big field over to the dunk tank, then a split second later was up on the seat telling AJ his turn was over. Then shortly after, he was dunked in the water in his church clothes. I remember his parents weren't too pleased with him at first, but ultimately didn't seem to mind too much. We both lived close by and could easily walk home, since our parents wouldn't let us in their cars soaking wet. Of course my friend Matt suggests I should go in the dunk tank - and it did look awfully inviting. A bunch of my other friends had all lined up to take their turn and it looked like they were having fun. I was SO close to doing it - it would have been my first time in a dunk tank and honestly it was the perfect day and perfect circumstance to go for it. I even asked my parents if I could - they had no problem with me going in the water, they just said I'd have to walk home and I'd have to take my shoes off first. I had no problem with either one of those conditions, I just totally froze up at the last minute. I even had my shoes off and was next up in line to climb the ladder, dressed in a short sleeve button down and nice dress shorts, and I chickened out! I wasn't shy, I wasn't scared of water or anything like that, I just couldn't get over whatever it was that was freaking me out. My friends probably thought I was nuts, but that's what happened. If I could do it over again, OBVIOUSLY I would have taken those last few steps up the ladder, sat on the seat, and got dunked in the water in my "church clothes." I even wouldn't have asked my parents permission first and would have kept my shoes on. Granted that would have definitely gotten me in trouble, but I would have, should have done it!

The second example happened later, I was in high school. It was my friend Jake's birthday. I think it was one of the "big" birthdays, so maybe 16 or 18. Anyway my friend Jake was a good dude. For starters, he was insanely good looking and always had a nice haircut, perfect skin, his hair was always neat and impeccable, he wore nicer clothes. He was an average student but a great soccer player. He was also what we jokingly called a "Boy Scout" - I think he was a literal Boy Scout, but was also involved in a bunch of church and school clubs that involved doing good deeds and community service and stuff. He was genuinely a good dude who never had a bad thing to say about anyone and would give you the shirt off his back. And while he was proud of his good looks he also didn't take himself too seriously. He'd have fun getting into water balloon fights with our younger kids. Once for some club he was in he did a fundraiser where you could pay a dollar and lob a paper plate full of whip cream at him. And probably because he was so good looking, he usually took the brunt of those kinds of activities, but he always seemed to take it in good fun. I know he was also in a dunk tank at least once, but I wasn't there for that. Anyway, that's a long way to setup this story. It was Jake's birthday, and the party was at his house. His house was on a lake and there was a long pier in his back yard going out into the lake. The lake was great for swimming, clear water but always surprisingly cold. I think this day was in April or May - it was still pretty chilly where we lived, so no one was planning on swimming at Jake's party, as far as I know. It was probably in the mid 60s - warm enough that you'd be comfortable in a long sleeve shirt and jeans, but not warm enough that you'd want to take a dip in the lake to relax. Plus that lake was always oddly cold, even on blistering hot days in the middle of summer, whenever I'd jump in, it was so cold I'd lose my breath for a second. Jake was wearing a nice pair of jeans, brown dress shoes, brown socks, a white t-shirt and a jeans jacket (yes, this was back when jeans jackets were the height of fashion.) There were maybe 20 people at the party, along with Jake's parents and his grandparents, and his younger brother and sister. We started to whisper among ourselves that we were going to throw Jake in the lake. Our friend Kyle was the ringleader of this scheme, and when he gave the signal, we all grabbed Jake and started carrying him down the dock. Jake knew what was about to happen and didn't seem to put up much of a fight - he said he just wanted to kick off his shoes, which we allowed, then otherwise he just laughed along with us. We started singing the Happy Birthday To You song, and at the end of the song we tossed Jake in the lake. And Kyle, who was closest to the edge of the dock, accidentally (at least I assume it was an accident) tumbled in after him - fully clothed, in a red and blue long sleeve button down shirt, tucked into a nicer pair of jeans, belt, brown shoes and black socks. Everyone was laughing as hard as we've ever laughed at this point. Jake was a great sport and seemed to enjoy swimming around fully clothed. Kyle rolled with it and seemed like he was having a good time. A few more people spontaneously jumped in, though most at least took off their shoes, a couple of the boys might have taken off their shirts to. I'm guessing out of the 20 people there, probably 8 at least ended up jumping in, mostly fully clothed. Even Jake's little brother - who was just wearing shorts, a t-shirt, was barefoot and had walked to the end of the dock and was having a very LOUD laugh at the sight of his older brother's fully clothed (and probably very chilly) swim. Jake saw that and climbed out of the lake, wrapped his brother in a bear hug and jumped back into the lake with him. I think his brother didn't mind at all - for starters, that kid would swim just about every free minute of every day that he possibly could, and plus I think he was just happy to be included in the 'older kids' prank. But me... I again chickened out. For no real reason. I had extra clothes in my car, I was hanging out with really good friends who weren't going to judge me or anything, I was wearing a perfect outfit, but I just froze up and couldn't do it. By the time I almost worked up the courage, the moment had passed, and everyone was climbing out of the cold water and starting to figure out how they were going to dry off and warm up. Jake was actually pretty hilarious and walked around in his soaked clothes for quite a while, at least until everyone else had either changed into dry clothes or run back to their houses to get dry clothes, and only then did he slip into his house and change. I thought that was pretty cool. If I could go back and do this day over again? I would have been in the lake right after Jake, in all my clothes and shoes, and I wouldn't have cared about it one bit.

Anyway, those are my "if I could do this day over again" stories. Anyone else have any?


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