Thu 11 Sep 2008
If you were given a chance to go back in your life with your current knowledge intact, would you? If so, to what age?
(You can take as a given that your current timeline would heal gracefully, that the people you currently know but might not given changes in the past will instead meet other people who will fill similar roles, etc. You can also assume that history will generally follow a similar track, as far as markets, world events and such go, though it’s not an absolute given, depending on who you are and what you might be able to accomplish.)
Posted by maxwelton7 answers so far!
Okay, let's hear it.
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A friend and I were discussing this the other day. It’s a complicated question, and I have no idea what my answer would be. I’m happy in my life now, but there were long stretches where I was not–in many ways it would be almost irresistible to discover whether you can do things differently in any meaningful way, or whether you are who you are, and no amount of foreknowledge will change the types of decisions you make.
I’d do the whole thing over. Why not?
When I was a kid I always wished I could do this: go back to first or second grade, wow all the teachers with my knowledge, get in good with the girls. Gradually I stopped obsessing about this (also stopped wishing I could ‘freeze time’ to finish homework assignments or come up with witty rejoinders). It’s cheesy, but I was sure my wife was right for me when I realized I would rather *not* go back to a time before I met her.
I’m 40. Fuck, yeah, make me young again. Make me young again! Take me back to seven or eight – even if it all goes more or less the same, who says no thanks to “MORE LIFE”?
Sorry to be crass, but I feel like that grandfather in “Little Miss Sunshine”… Looking back, I think I could have fucked a lot more women. And as you gain more and more perspective on life as you get older, that’s really what it’s all about.
I’d go back to when I was a little kid, before school so I could be more confident in dealing with bullies and also to enjoy being three. I was gifted at school anyway- I can hardly make primary school easier for myself by going back with intelligence from now.
Given the no-risk premise (I’m pretty happy about where — and with whom — I am these days), sure. I’d want to start with reasonably solid motor skills and interesting social company, so probably no earlier than eight or nine.
I’d take a lot of notes. I would probably worry my parents and strike my peers as deeply weird. I would be more outspoken, earlier. I would take better care of my teeth. I would, in all likelihood, end up with my wife sooner, which is a dangerous prospect because it would that would make both of us younger and more foolish, but here’s where I’ll flex that no-risk premise to assume it’d all work out anyway, right?
Karla, in my pot-smoking happyface t-shirt, in my room, sleeping beside me. After a long chain of events of me being infatuated and her expressing interest (I see in hindsight).
I didn’t have the guts. This has bothered me for well over a decade.
However, I do love my wife. I just wish I took that chance a long time before I met my wife.