15 women anonymously reveal their biggest high school regret.

We all have those few moments in our lives that make us shake our head in astonishment, embarrassment or straight up regret. 

Because whether we'd like to admit it or not, there are a few things some of us wouldn't mind changing about our past if we were given the opportunity. 

However, as painful or embarrassing as it may be to look back on an uncomfortable moment from our past, believe us when we say we are definitely not alone in our journeys.

So to show you that there are so many of us who have had similar experiences, Mamamia asked 15 women to share their biggest high school regret.

Watch This Glorious Mess: Letter to my teenage self. Post continues after video.

Here's what they had to say.

Biggest School Regrets:

Rachel:

"I wish I didn't hook up with that boy in the school hall when I was 15, and then be exposed for it by my then best friend. Talk about embarrassing - and the kiss wasn't even worthy enough of getting caught for."

Charity:

"In year 9 I was bullied by one girl (and her ‘gang’) mercilessly. They threw food at me at lunch and heckled me if I was called on in class. I wish I’d just asked her straight out why she was being so nasty. Or told her to cut it out and get a life. I thought by ‘turning the other cheek’ I was doing the noble thing. But it just prolonged my agony. My self-esteem was damaged so much…"

Helen:

"WOW! where do I start. Year 7 and 8, I was a great student, getting mainly A’s and B’s, and a very good girl. Year 9 however, took a turn. I mean I wasn’t out of control, I lived with my mum and my two younger sisters, but I started hanging around with the wrong crowd. 

"When I was wagging at a 'friends' house, they influenced me to get and undercut (when you shave the back of your head), cutting off my beautiful long brown hair. I was scared to show my mum, she would have freaked out. Well, she found out, when I was playing my 4th netball game for that week, as my mum never missed a game. I tried to hide my undercut. I still remember to this day, 31 years later, I was about to shoot a goal, the wind flicked my very thin ponytail and I just heard my mum on the side line yelling 'has my daughter got an undercut?' I was so scared. 

"I finished the game, but I was no longer allowed to hang out with those so called 'friends' anymore. I only told her a few years ago that I was actually wagging at her house. I would have been dead if she found out at the time. It wasn’t until I looked back now, I realise I was not doing myself any favours. 

"I started smoking behind the school shed, in the toilet, wagging school, forcing my little sister who was two years younger to wag school with me. I would forge my Mum’s signature to say why I was not there for the day. This went on till about year 11, before I knew it I was in year 12 and I think it was too late to go back to being strict with homework and so forth. 

"I did ok on my VCE, somehow, but my greatest regrets are not putting in 100 per cent when I had the chance. Time flies, and before you know it, you’re married with three kids in your mid-40s. 

"I know opportunities are still there, to go to university, or whatever your dream is, but it would be nothing like victory accomplished at school. When I tell my kids my journey, 15, 14 and 10, they think I was feral, horrible to my Mum, and not doing my best. I try to instill in them good morals and give everything 100 per cent, no matter what you do. 

"I was not feral; I thought I was cool; I may not have been horrible to my beautiful mum, but I was horrible to me. In time though, we grow, we learn and when we have kids; we pray with everything in us that they don’t turn out the way we were as teenagers."

Claudia:

"Having meaningless crushes. I see the beauty in it and how beautiful it can be to love (or think you do at least) someone at that age, but it is just so trivial and stupid and the things I did just to be liked by stupid boys with emotional detachment issues was humiliating. So I regret that deeply."

Remi:

"Sticking with my primary school friends. As I grew up, we grew in different directions as people. Stupidly I stayed loyal and kept hanging around them. I felt so different and so 'not one of them'. I just wish I'd had the confidence in myself (and guts) to branch out and find 'my people'."

Yolanda:

"Definitely when I decided to wear pink underwear with a hole in it on the same day that I wore my too short, too old and way too thin uniform dress to school. I walked down the steps and it flew over my face. It still sits with me, and my high school friends still laugh at me over it. Eek."

Clemmie:

"Not working harder and getting better results. It came easy to me but I was worried about being called a nerd so I dumbed myself down. Also not spending more time thinking about what sort of career I really wanted. If I had my time again, I would make a lot of different decisions."

Beth:

"Giving in to so much peer pressure - none of the issues were life threatening, life changing, or had any effect on my long-term decisions… so why did I spend so much time wasted on expectations from other 'friends' at the time?"

Harriet:

"Listening to my friends when they said 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels'… what horrific words for 15-year-olds to reiterate. I had the quote written on my mirror."

Jennifer:

"Taking too many drugs. Frying my brain."

Listen to No Filter, a Mamamia podcast hosted by Mia Freedman. Dick Pics, TikTok & Vaping: The Hectic Lives Of Teenagers. Post continues after audio.

Poh:

"I wish I had played a sport. I think I would have made better friends and wouldn’t have associated with the wrong sort of people and done the wrong sort of things."

Geradine: 

"That I didn’t own a hair straightener."

Crystal:

"Not valuing myself enough to expect more from ‘the boy next door’ and putting up with being his second option."

Jane:

"Kissing and sleeping with boys to get attention and 'respect', when really it just made me feel bad about myself and people think less of me."

Samara:

"I regret telling my mother I hated her so much in high school. I wish I could take it all back and just tell her she was doing a good job, I wish so badly she could have heard it from her 13-year-old daughter and not the 27-year-old version. She was a stay at home mum, and the greatest woman I ever knew. High school me was such a silly, ungrateful little girl."

What is your biggest high school regret? Let us know in the comments below.

Feature Image: Getty / Mamamia.