Marina Gabrielle

Listening to my parents.

I’m sure most of you know that when I was 15–16 years old, a woman tried to recruit me for an up and coming modeling agency. My parents told me ‘fuck no.’ They forbade to speak of it ever again.

I don’t know why, but until a few weeks ago, I didn’t look her up and I didn’t look up the agency she ‘represented’ because I was still angry about it. I never once Googled her. Not once.

I figured if I found out whether or not she made a legitimate offer, I would be even more upset. So I pretty much shoved the memory of the agent and the offer to the back of my mind.

Big mistake.

I mentioned this a few times and then I began thinking about ‘what ifs.’

So I typed her name into the search bar, took a deep breath, and pressed ‘go.’

Guess what?

She is an actual person, her credentials were true, and she did work at a modeling agency at that time. It doesn’t exist anymore as of last year, but fuck. It could’ve opened doors for me. I could’ve networked and grew roots in the industry. I could’ve had a career by the time I was 18. I could’ve been a spokesperson for ASPCA for goodness sakes.

These are all ‘what ifs.’

But anything is possible. It was a chance.

So listening to my parents at that one point in time was a huge mistake that I’d change in a heartbeat if I could.

Kanwal Anuvind

Mom: What do you want for your 19th birthday?

Me: I don’t know. How about a DSLR camera?

Mom: Sure, there you go.

No, it did not end like that.

From anniversaries to birthdays to festivals, I have been covering everything.

That small mistake made me the unofficial family photographer.

Well played, mom.

Elena Ledoux

When I first met my ex, we were walking down the street in Tashkent and were approached by a beggar. His reaction was nearly hysterical and very rude. I chose to overlook it as he was otherwise polite and very interesting and cultured. That was a big mistake.

Sreenath Reddy

I love cooking.

When ever I feel low or stressed I would go for cooking.

When I was sharing room with my friends I used to cook chicken biriyani my most favourite food occasionally. Once I cooked special chicken biriyani for my colleagues.

This is the biriyani I cooked:

Image Credit: Sreenath Reddy

I am not saying my life was affected badly from this but atleast my weekend plans got affected .

Cooking for special occasions or for our loved ones is fine but not for your screwing boss/manager.

Hope they will read it and stop asking me to cook.

Via Quora