Hindsight

Gabrielm80

Doing good in school was hard until I dropped out of college and had to work two jobs to make ends meet. Suddenly when I went back to school I was Valedictorian of my graduating class.
Being respectful to your elders is so unpopular until you become a parent than you stop demanding apologies for their failures and start to give yours to them.
Making the right healthy choices wasn't more important than living in the moment until I was wheeled out of surgery for a heart stint last year. Now it's all I think about, and failure is not acceptable.

If only wisdom could be passed down, but usually has to be learned by experience. What have you experienced and did you learn from it?

harribeau2012

"Being respectful to your elders is so unpopular until you become a parent than you stop demanding apologies for their failures and start to give yours to them. "

THIS - I carried alot of emotional baggage round for years, in the end I officially apologised to my Dad for being such an idiot in my teens - but then , that's kind of what teenage years are about! My Mum had died when I was small and my elder sister died when I was a teen, I was then living with my full time employed Dad and full time employed brother whilst at school myself, I had an enormous chip on my shoulder...why should I cook dinner?(for example) just because I'm a girl - blow the fact that I got home hours before anyone else!!! what a plonker.

If I could go back in time I'd show myself pictures of what comfort eating does to a body!

Gabrielm80

Your past sounds like you were dealing with a lot. There is error in hindsight and there is having to work through emotions of not one but two tragities. That's a lot for even adults to handle no less a child. Sounds like you have a best selling biography somewhere in side you. Ever think out writing it all on paper might help aid you in this journey of weight loss if you can lighten the pain you carry.

harribeau2012

actually one of the best hindsight moments was probably when I realised just how draining it was to chew over the past too much...that it robbed my present of peace of mind. I don't NEVER do it, but I made a conscious decision that I would not be forever a victim of history, that I would address emotional baggage but not be buried beneath it...It was easier then to start looking out the windscreen more (not always the rear view mirror) - Hindsight can also be a terrific gift for now...I have already started making my apologies for my failings with my children...and my husband...before it comes back as a huge wedge that gets in the way at parties.I just wish I'd learned to relax earlier.

You must be proud to have done well at school, my eldest is sitting exams now and we are already so proud that he has done a much better job than we did (we told him how we had to go back!)