Would you go back...

[Yooper]

To quote The Divine Miss M., I would NEVER go back unless I could take my XX year old brain with me.

Would I like to have made different decisions? Of course.

But it is all an experience, built on past experiences. Ya can't go back anyway, so no use dwelling on the past.

 

[chillyboi]

I'd like to go back as far as 9-10 my folks still married & alive, & i would definately pay more attention

 

[dpnice]

That is the problem with this question. Would any of us be willing to go back with absolutely no memories of what we have lived up to the present moment?

Would the possible gains outweigh the loss of every memory of the events and relationships that you have experienced so far?

If returning to childhood ment that you couldn't rely on the experiences you had lived in order to rectify mistakes in your life or achieve things you haven't been able to would any of us take the risk?

Is it worth reliving your life though not knowing that you are reliving it?

Going back would be worthless without the ability to transfer all your experiences at the same time.

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

But of course Ashyphoenix! Who wouldn't want to relive all that pain and shame that turned out to be all for nothing?

 

[vegetaishott2003]

I would go back to 1999, when I came out to a few friends on my Freshmen year of High School.....bad choice.......and continue my life as a closeted guy, without no one knowing. I'd think it be better but then I'd want to return to 2003(graduation) and find out if I what I knew in my heart was true.....that a guy I knew, since Middle School, cared about me in a different way....I would talk to him.

Now it's like, I still think of him and wonder what would of happen if I talked to him. What big impact would my life have taken? I tried looking for him on MySpace, Facebook, and even Classmates.....but usually get side-tracked....I hope he's doing okay.

 

[vegetaishott2003]

Not quit my 11$ /hr job with benefits when i was 17 just cuz I wanted to smoke weed with my friends.

You too.....I did so many bad decisions back then but I'm back on the road to persue my dream of being an actor......but that doesn't mean my bad streak will go hiding anytime soon.

If I ever make it to the "A" list of actors, I'm gonna try to convert any hot guy that comes my way and maybe try to see if I can score with Angelina Jolie!

 

[davy]

If I could, I would only go back with my current mind and memories. I would go back to my late teenage years.

I would have done anything in my power to get tyson out of town... RIP

I would join the football team so that I get a feel for what it like when people say that "it's the best time of your life." (Not that it's true, but jocks are always hot anyways)

I would come out to my beard high school girlfriend and we would take trips to west hollywood instead of las vegas.

I would also come out to my brother and sisters because I now know that they wouldn't have cared. I still would stay in the closet to my parents; because they still don't accept me.

I would pre-emptively dump all of my friends and get some that wouldn't care whether or not I'm gay.

I would have asked brandon out.

I would have joined all sorts of gay activities and groups in college.

I would have dated in college.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda...blah blah blah

 

[justsimon]

Absolutely not. My life is considerably better now.

 

[codeerror]

Experience shapes a person. Although I've had more than enough of bad experiences, and even fooled death a few times on my course to self-determination, I've never wished to go back to when I was younger. I do regret doing some stupid things, and endangering not only myself, but people that I love.
While we normally look forward in time, it's healthy to look back at the past and see your patterns of choice and behaviour, and learn from it. The most interesting people I know are people with a thorough comprehension of themselves.

If I were still talking to both of my parents I'd thank them for giving me such a good start in life.

That said, I agree with dpnice.

 

[Pushover]

I'd have definitely come out earlier. Most definitely.

Other things? I don't know...warn people of George Bush? Tell off all the people I was afraid to? Try harder in school? There's a lot of things we could change, but sometimes changing it means you'll be an entirely different person.

Hindsight is the best foresight.

 

[davy]

What I meant, is that if you popped that SOB, then that would make you a different person now than if you didn't pop him. Do you see what I mean? We get changed by events and experiences.

I suppose if you hated a guy enough that you will make stretches of reasoning to envision hitting him

.... Then yeah, I guess so

 

[Críostóir]

Wow, tempting. Go back to 6 and say yes when my mom asked if I wanted dance classes? Go back to high school and see if I can seduce Mark, who I learned 20 years later is queer?

Or go back to grade school and say "Mom, sometimes I have trouble breathing" and see if they figure out that I have asthma, like they didn't? Or make a big fuss when I saw [redacted] instead of pretending I didn't see anything and trying to forget? (THAT would have caused a divorce; I wonder if my life would have been better?)

Or starting to work out when I was in high school instead of waiting until I was 26? No, because then I might have been attractive in college, and I'd probably be dead now, like most of my friends from then.

Maybe not.

 

[alexander IV]

" You cant' go home again" -- not ever ! The past has ended with the clean finality of the closing of that door on the what ' was'. There is no road back.
To relive the three happiest years of my life, with the knowledge of its end with the dead body of my first lover in my arms, the pain would be too much. To return to an innocence now lost, would be a supreme sisyphuaian task that far outweighs any remembrances of fleeting joys.
Contentment with the here and now, in the green and and hopeful and still-virgin meadows of the future is where I prefer to rest my head.
Bob Seger succinctly put it this way, " I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then. "
___________________________________

' Your life is a sham, 'till you can shout out I am what I am. '

 

[jamie_01930]

on one hand I would go back when I was late teenage or early twenties
and knowing what I know now

the down side of that is in this life I have two kids now 36 and 39. and in the other I surely would not have kids as I wouldn't have married a woman.

I'll stay the age I am. kids are awesome most of the time

 

[JOHN B]

I would definitely go back to age 20 or so. I had too many things going on in my life at 18 or so, so I would surely not want to be dropped into that time again. But at 20 I was in college, just realizing that even though I was halfway thru my Major (Social Services) I really did not want to do that anymore. But.....I did "the right thing" and just "stayed on course". "You start something, you finish it, that's that." If I woke up tomorrow at that age/time period again I would have dropped out for a semester. Changed gears, and enrolled elsewhere, starting all over in a complete new direction (either culinary school, or architecture). My view of the world, and "expected behaviors" is SO different now, than when I was young. I spent too much of my youth "on the straight and narrow" and should have bucked the system and shaken up my life a bit. Oh well, live and learn.....

Edit/addendum: I would also start working out, lol, I would be one of those hot young studs I drool over now......

 

[The_Reaper]

Hmmm...I'd need to know a few things before I agree to this.

Would I retain the knowledge that I have now? Would it simply be like stepping back in time and becoming my younger self, but knowing ahead of time the things that I had learned over my 22 years already spent growing up?

If so, then yes, I would gladly go back and live through a few more things...Not to mention correct a few things that I should have done right the first time.

If not; then I have no interest in simply going back and doing it all over again...I need the leg up.

 

[Swellegant]

I'd rather just have the body (or at least the skin, the hair, and the metabolism) of my 19-year-old self without having to actually go back to 1987. Skinny waifish twinks weren't the fashion then as they are now.

Sometimes when I can't sleep, I think about what I would have done differently if I only knew what the consequences of my actions would be, thought about how far back I would go if I could. My usual thought is to go back to sixteen: I would have done better in high school so I could go straight to college, I would have not started smoking or drinking, I would have bought Disney and Microsoft stock.

But I think what I would do most, which would have made my young life happier, is to appreciate myself more. I'd look in the mirror and tell myself "Hey, you're pretty!" Looking at pictures now, I see that I was perfectly adorable, but I didn't think so the because I didn't look like the guys I wanted to look like.

On the other hand, I also think about what I'd miss if I could go back. So many wonderful things in my life came about as a result of some stupid mistake that I frequently wish I hadn't made. So many of my friends would be unknown to me if I never became an alcoholic, because I never would have gone to the AA meetings where I met them. So much of what makes me at all wise or even interesting came about because of the pain I've suffered.

So I guess it's a good thing I can't go back. I'd probably make a bigger mess trying to fix the mess I'm in.

 

[Lukeee]

No. I have had many unpleasant experiences that are now resolved. I will do anything to keep it that way.

 

[voyager1994]

Nah...life may get more complicated than it already is...

 

[belamy]