Question Of The Day, Wednesday, Aug 9, 2017

[Mamanyt1953]

I think I may be getting into a rut. Time for some deep introspection. This question has a bit of the flavor of last week's question, or at least the same root.

Today, one of my neighbors said, "I wish I could be 18 again and know what I know now!" But I thought, no, if I knew then what I know now, I would enjoy being 18 at all! However giving that some thought, I realized that I actually wouldn't be adverse to going back and being 27 again, knowing what I know now. My life would have taken a very different path. I'd still have my kids, but I wouldn't have wasted a lot of years.

So this is the question. If you could go back to a certain age with your knowledge intact and have a do-over, which age would you pick? If you are answering yes, PLEASE don't feel as if you have to explain why. Do if you want, but sometimes those reasons might be very private.

 

[mokapi]

Personally, no...but only because I think everything happens for a reason, and I'm currently very content with where I am. If I go back, and I do something differently, then my life now might not be as happy.

I feel like I've lived through my fair share of trauma, abuses, and regrets...there are plenty of things I wish I hadn't done, or hadn't said, and things I'd like to erase from my memory, but even time wasted on certain endeavors or on certain people still got me where I am today.

Maybe I'll feel different in a few years

 

[Winchester]

I'd go back to when I was 16 and smack myself up alongside the head. Hard.

 

[mokapi]

I'd go back to when I was 16 and smack myself up alongside the head. Hard.

If we get chances just to go back and berate ourselves for stupidity, I have quite a few times in mind

 

[DreamerRose]

I'd go back to 18. My life would have been completely different if I changed decisions I made then. But times are not the same, and I had no way to know back then.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

I wouldn't have wasted a lot of years.

Mamanyt1953 - Time can't be wasted. Even sitting alone, looking up at the night sky is a learning experience. We teach ourselves - and if we are very fortunate, we have the opportunity to teach others now and again - every waking moment. I read your posts carefully, and often smile at the breadth of your wisdom. One doesn't acquire wisdom by "wasting years."

As for myself, I'm 63, and think that it's the perfect age for me. I can laugh at myself more easily (and perhaps more frequently) than I could have in years gone by, but without allowing that laughter to colour my judgment. Knowing things isn't the same as understanding them, and even if we had the chance to go back to an earlier age with the knowledge which we've acquired, the impatience and impetuosity of youth would still foil us at every turn. The precious little wisdom I've gathered has come with age, and with the recognition that my Life has been Blessed beyond my wildest youthful dreams.

Eighteen? I remember being eighteen; it was glorious then, but going back to eighteen would be a nightmare. Eighteen is hormones, going forward at ninety miles and hour, and having no more focus than a gnat. At thirty miles an hour, you get to see everything - and no matter how much knowledge we might take back with us, this is a thing no eighteen year old will ever comprehend.
.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I think the only thing I would do differently is go back to when I was thin and establish good exercise habits. So probably 18-24ish.

 

[kashmir64]

I wouldn't go back. Every thing that happens and the choices we make is who we are right now. I would like to have the health and beauty I had when I was 20, however.
If I changed my life, even knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have my son. And I wouldn't trade him or change any detail that brought him here for the world.

 

[muffy]

I'd go back to when I was 16 and smack myself up alongside the head. Hard.

Good one!!!
I would like to go back to when I was 21 and smack myself really hard.

Muffy

 

[MeganLLB]

The only thing I would want to do is go back to before I started college, and make myself go to community college first, work a job at the same time and pay my way through all of the gen ed's. Then I would transfer, maybe pick different majors and not waste my money. And also make myself work through college and save it. Then maybe I wouldn't have so much debt now. Oh and also I would have worked harder to apply for more grants and scholarships and scrape every last penny to pay for college. College was the biggest financial mistake of my life. I would do anything to go back and change it.

 

[neely]

Although I read Wednesday's question of the day earlier this morning I had to ponder it. What I realized is that I'm actually comfortable in my own skin and am happy to remain there.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Pondering is good.

 

[denice]

I would go back to 18 if it were possible. I went to college for two years and then dropped out because I couldn't decide what I wanted to major in. I still don't know what I would've majored in but I would pick something and get that degree at 22. It would've made so many things much easier. Knowing what I know now I probably would have gotten either a business degree because it does have a practical use or I would've gotten a history degree. I love history but a degree in it isn't very practical as far as working in the field. So many doors open up with that degree regardless of what the degree is in.

 

[neely]

Pondering is good.

LOL, if I had answered the question today I would have probably said my 20-30's so I could have more energy.

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

Personally, no...but only because I think everything happens for a reason, and I'm currently very content with where I am. If I go back, and I do something differently, then my life now might not be as happy.

I feel like I've lived through my fair share of trauma, abuses, and regrets...there are plenty of things I wish I hadn't done, or hadn't said, and things I'd like to erase from my memory, but even time wasted on certain endeavors or on certain people still got me where I am today.

Maybe I'll feel different in a few years

i mean, it's tempting, to think that i might go back and change something or other and then be better off in the long run of my life. but the older i've gotten, the more i believe that as long as i'm doing the right things for the right reasons, everything will work out best for me (and mine) in the long run.

 

[Norachan]

Good question.

I was a typical nightmare teen and I wasn't any better when I was in my 20's. I did all the things parents warn their daughters not to do. Hung out with the wrong crowd, wandered around cities on my own, rode 2 or 3 up on motorbikes without a helmet, got tattooed and pierced and did a whole lot more that I won't go into here.

I survived though. Looking back now it was all a great adventure and I wasn't hurting anyone, so I don't regret any of it.

The only thing I would like to change is all the mistakes I made when I started trying to take care of the feral cats I saw around. I wish I knew as much about TNR then as I do now. I was too slow off the mark a lot of the time and cats and kittens died because I didn't know how to help them. I feel terrible about that and I mentally apologise to those cats every day.

So if I could go back about ten years and do a much better job than I did, I'd be happy.