What have you done in the past that you regret doing

Question: What have you done in the past that you regret doing
- Keywords:
  regret
Asked by Biology.com to Alex, Andrew, Delma, Julia, Simon on 5 Dec 2015.
- Andrew Winnard answered on 5 Dec 2015:
  
  This is an awesome question and maybe the hardest one to answer so far – so good job for asking it!
  
  When I was finishing my A-levels and doing my first degree, I didn’t really have much direction in life in that I was not sure what I wanted to do. I think it is really hard to decide what to do for the rest of your life when you are young! So I ended up simply following standard careers advise that said, your good at science so go and do biomedical science at university. This was an awesome degree, but it possibly wasn’t what I really wanted to do for the rest of my life. It was then that I realised you need to do things that you enjoy and are passionate about. For me, that had always been space flight, but up until starting my second degree and physio training I had never beleived I could ever work in space flight! I just thought I was thinking crazy that I could… At this point in my life though, I heard NASA astronaut Sunni Williams, live on the space station, saying that opportunities to work in space flight are out there for anyone and that if you follow your dreams they can come true. So from that day on I set out to try and do things in space flight. Now, nine year later, here I am, working as space scientist and I’ve worked directly with astronauts (and Tim!) at the European Astronaut Centre! The passion and enjoyment of working in this sort of career makes all the hard work worth while.
  
  So I’d probably say that I regret not beleiving in myself when I was young and so not being sure where I was going. My advice would be to follow your dreams, do what ever you enjoy, dare to be bold and beleive in yourself!
  
  I am still waiting to meet or talk to the real Sunni Williams to tell her about how she inspired me though!
- Alexander Finch answered on 6 Dec 2015:
  
  Hmm, a hard question. There are many mistakes I made in my life that I wish I had done differently. The problem is that at the time it’s hard to know if you’ll regret a decision or not.
  
  I regret not learning Spanish properly at school.
  
  I regret not having confidence in myself when I was younger.
  
  I regret being tempted by a huge salary and went to work in banking when I finished university instead of following my ambitions to be a space engineer.
  
  Any many more. But you have to accept these regrets are inevitable, a part of life, and that there are many more to be created in the future. Life continues regardless, and there are plenty of things to be happy about too!
- Delma Childers answered on 7 Dec 2015:
  
  This is a tough question (good job!) and I think Alex sums it up pretty nicely. There are a lot of little things I regret, either immediately (like the one time I missed that second step on the staircase and hit my knee) or once time has passed and I realize I could have done things differently. But you just have to keep moving forward and looking ahead, and don’t let regret weigh you down. Learn from your mistakes, but don’t dwell on them.
- Julia Attias answered on 7 Dec 2015:
  
  Hi @biology.com,
  
  As the others have said – a very difficult question. We all have little regreats here and there – its impossible not to – we cant get everything in life right. But professionally, I am not sure that I regret anything. Everything happens for a reason in my eyes, and I think that every choice I have made let me to where I am today, and I am very happy with what I do. I often think that I regret not doing a Masters degree earlier than 2011, but then had I have done it earlier, I would never have found the Space physiology MSc, because it didn’t exist before that…

Question: What have you done in the past that you regret doing

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