Do Overs

We all know that we are where we are in life today by the choices we made in the past. On Pinterest today a quote read, "Sometimes the wrong choices bring us to the right places".  You get the idea.  Though I am quite contented in my present state of being, I have thoughts of what I would do if I could have a life do over.  Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong era and wrong nationality, but that can be a subject for another day.
To set the ground rules, I will just go back to 1962 and Mid-West, USA. I would not change the basic format in which I was born; 5th child and only daughter.  These things have bode me well.  The do overs I would want are to take some different paths and to make some different choices. One thing I would do differently would be to actually practice that damn piano and learn to play the guitar.  What a missed opportunity; and I tried piano lessons twice!!!  People tell me it is never too late to learn these things, but I really don't see it happening.  Yeah, on occasion I piddle with the guitar and I can play a few chords, but I would never be able to sit around a campfire and play folk music like they do in the movies.
My parents never really made me work as a kid.  I would like to have put forth a bit more effort to help them with the cooking and cleaning.  Perhaps along the way I would have learned how to prepare my own meals instead of "relying on the kindness of strangers" in restaurants. I did babysit a whole lot from about 10 year old until I could drive (and for 50 cents an hour regardless of the number of children), so I think I learned a lot about responsibilty and money management.  Upon becoming vehicularly mobile, what I SHOULD have done was to get a job at The Rock of Krakow, KLPW FM.  Growing up in the decades of the 1960's and 1970's, I was exposed to the best classic rock music ever created. Many an hour was spent listening to my transistor radio tied to the monkey-bar handle bars of my banana seat bike, the turntable and 8-track player in my bedroom, and the analog car stereo.  I absorbed so much music trivia that I think I could have become a great disc jockey.  My students used to tell me that I had a great voice for radio (probably a great face for it, too).
Though I wanted to be a school teacher since the 5th grade (big shout out to Mrs. Clarkson et al) I should have put more effort into the study of the sciences and not the humanities.  I loved teaching history and all those other social sciences, but had I had a background in real science I could have become a forensics person.  Also, I should have entertained the idea of joining the military.  Fortunately for my generation, the members of the military saw little to no combat.  All the benefits without too much danger...that would work for me (don't go getting all 'Merican on me for that one...I'm just saying...). 
I would NOT have gotten married, especially the first time.  Just trying to live the fairy tale and do what everyone else was doing.  It would have been nice if I had had enough self-esteem to just be myself.  This is one of the things I feel saddest about...all that wasted time trying to fit in to society's ideal.  Not being true to myself and others.  Hurting several people along the way.
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and mentally beat myself up for quitting teaching after 21 years.  Another 2 years and I would be retired, foot loose and fancy free.  As it stands now, I will have to work another 10 years until I can collect my pension(s).  But I cannot dwell on that; I made that choice and that boat has sailed.  I would have worked after retiring anyway,  and where I am currently employed I am earning a pretty good pension and 401K.  Besides that, with the economy the way it is, my investments are worth half of what they were to begin with.  Suck it up; life goes on.
As for right now, I am more free than I have ever been.  I have had a pretty good life and have a lot for which to be grateful.  The do overs are just the what ifs that we all have hidden in our hearts.  Though I might have wanted to do somethings differently, I don't think I would want to change the place where I am currently.  It's all good.