'I asked my friends what their biggest regrets are. This is what they told me.'

I’ve been thinking about regrets a lot lately.

Those split second decisions or tiny missteps we all make that haunt us for years to come. Even the bigger choices that you spend hours, days, even months agonising over. All of the what ifs/maybes that make us question every single choice we’ve made up until this point.

Then I watched the trailer for Stan’s upcoming original series, Bloom.

Take a look at the trailer for Bloom, premiering exclusively on Stan on January 1, 2019.

Bloom follows the story of an Australian woman named Gwen Reed, portrayed by both Phoebe Tonkin as ‘Young Gwen’ and by two-time Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver as the older Gwen.

In Bloom the mystery kicks off one year after a devastating flood killed five locals in an idyllic country town. Following the natural disaster, a mysterious new plant suddenly appears. A plant with the power to restore youth.

At first this plant appears to be a gift powerful beyond anyone’s wildest imaginations, but we learn it’s also a miracle some will kill to keep secret.

The plant offers Gwen a second chance to go back to moments in her past – but there’s a cost.

It got me thinking about the idea of the “second chance”. Does everyone have regrets, or things they’d change if they had the chance?

So I asked my friends what their biggest regrets in life were. Though their answers differed, every single one of them wished they could go back and change something.

This is what they told me:

Relationships

“I wish I had let people in more. And I wish I had taken more chances in relationships. Now I’m 35 and alone and it didn’t have to be this way.” – Karen

“I wish I left my first boyfriend five years earlier than I did.” – Rikki

“I regret getting back together with my ex-boyfriends after we had broken up. That’s never been a good move.” – Jessie

Career

“I regret not taking advantage of opportunities at school and at university. I was on all the sports teams but never went to practice, had violin lessons but gave it up, never got involved in any societies at uni. I wish I’d made the most of those chances.” – Polly

“I wish I’d taken a gap year after school. I was so caught up in the ‘get your degree, get your first job, get set up’ mentality that I missed out on the kinds of adventures some people I know had in that year away. That being said, I did get to make up for it a little bit when I became a travel editor! But a few days or weeks away here and there isn’t quite as immersive as actually living overseas. Regret is a funny thing though, if I hadn’t walked the path I had, would I have the things in my life that I love? I try not to look back too much or else you could turn yourself in knots and never move forward.” – Adam

“I wish I had had the courage to pursue my dreams when I was younger. I wasted years thinking I was not good enough and being terrified of failure.” – Karen

Travel

"I never took a gap year and I wish I'd done a year of travel when that was entirely possible and was what most people my age were doing." - Polly

"I regret not living overseas when I had the chance. Now I'll probably never have that opportunity." - Cath

"I wish I had given myself permission to explore the world and have fun while I was still young. I spent so much time focusing on what I didn't have and thinking that I wasn't good enough." - Karen

Family

"I wish I was a more attentive mum when Summer was little and took in every tiny little moment that I now forget." - Rikki

"I regret not trying to have children earlier. Now I'm facing some of the toughest decisions of my life." - Cath

"My main regret is not having enough time to get to know my father-in-law, he passed away only a few years after I'd met him, and didn't get to really know his grandchildren." - Emilie

It seems everyone - no matter where they are in life - has some regrets. And we'd all love to have a second chance, with a little bit of hindsight.

Do you have any regrets? Are they the same or different to my friends' ones? Tell us about them in a comment below, if you like.

Bloom, Stan's new original series, drops on New Year's Day. Take a look.