I am very happy for my family origin. Not perfect, but, really good models for being parents. My mom should have been born in my generation...
And I really wouldn't change anything about my life now. The things I mentioned earlier, well, it's all in hindsight. I made a stupid decision at age 18, but I knew it was a stupid decision when I was doing it. It was so long ago, it doesn't matter. I've reconnected with the person who I dumped, and we both ended up having great lives. Funny, he was the perfect athlete, popular, brilliant. I was not the athlete, was smart, but nothing special in the place I grew up, and while I was popular, I didn't have guys pining over me.
Guess who's the athlete now and who has had back surgery and needs a knee replacement, while getting vicarious thrills by following Boston sports teams from afar?
I don't regret my teaching career. I wish I had had the guts to do something a little different, but I became a very good educator and it gave me strength. The time was right to switch, though and do what I was told not to do when I was a sophomore in college, because "you'll never get a job."