Originally Posted by Bowser
Yes. While I was in basic training in the Air Force, there is a day where all the recruits sit in class where they offer jobs and posts, and they allow you to make a list of what job you would want and where you'd like to be stationed. About ten minutes into the class, a Staff Sergeant walks in and asks to see Airman Bowser. I kind of freak out that I was being singled out in front of 100-ish other guys, but I go out in the hall with him. I report to him all formally as we are taught to do, and he kind of laughs and tells me to relax, he isn't there for all of that. Long story short, he offers me a job to be a boon operator on a refueler. I absolutely freeze and dick it up, turning down his offer. He was cool about it, and with me, but looks at me and says "Are you sure? If you say no, this won't be offered again". I stick with my answer, he thanks me for my time, wishes me luck, and walks away. To this day, 30+ years later, I can still see his face and see him walking away, and I want so badly to tell 19 year old Bowser to run after him and tell him to take the freaking job, you freaking idiot. That literally would have been a dream job for me, and I most likely would have made the Air Force my career. That is absolutely my One Thing I Would Change Moment.
But, that said, I've had a pretty good life in spite of being a 19 year old dumbass, lol (there are those that would argue it wasn't just at 19 years old, haha). I read a quote once saying something along the lines of "the longer you live in the past regretting mistakes, the deeper you push yourself into living with depression". It's true, and I try not to be that person, but just appreciate what I've done and who I've become since. It's all we can do, really.
*EDIT - not that it's terribly important, but I really do feel that I was offered that job because of my dad's service during WWII as a top turret gunner on a B-17. They would not have taken an interest in me, I believe, if I hadn't been his kid (dad was 48 when I was born; I was a total "ooops" baby, lol).
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