# If you could go back to be the younger you again...



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

So let's imagine you've been granted a super-power: you can go back (one time) to any point in your past, re-starting your life from that point, and you get to keep the knowledge that you have right now. 

Now of course we'd all use our knowledge to make shrewd investments, but what else what you do?


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Kick myself in the butt!


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

To have done better at high school, not just with the work/exams but with regards to my general attitude and behaviour in class which was often poor. It's a bit of a clichéd choice but what I'd probably opt for nevertheless - it took me many years to properly grow up.


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## Dorsetmike (Sep 26, 2018)

I'd skip marrying the first wife, I'd have been a heck of a lot better off, I've heard it said if you want to know what your wife will be like in 20 or 30 years look at her mother, I wish I'd have believed it then.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I'd have taken better care of my teeth. And not allowed myself to get those three nasty sunburns as a teenager. 

And spoken to that lovely girl at university..................


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I'd go back to being an egg and find a way to tell my mother to marry someone different.


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## Joe B (Aug 10, 2017)

This line from a movie pretty much sums it up for me:

*"Regret. It piles up around us like books we never read."*

I'm pretty well convinced I would just wind up making a new pile and find myself in a similar situation. Why bother? I'm already here, I'm tired, and I've already come to grip with my failings and short comings. You might be able to escape past mistakes, errors, or take advantage of missed opportunities, but you can't run away from the guy in the mirror.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Joe B said:


> This line from a movie pretty much sums it up for me:
> 
> *"Regret. It piles up around us like books we never read."*
> 
> I'm pretty well convinced I would just wind up making a new pile and find myself in a similar situation. Why bother? I'm already here, I'm tired, and I've already come to grip with my failings and short comings. You might be able to escape past mistakes, errors, or take advantage of missed opportunities, but you can't run away from the guy in the mirror.


So the guy in the mirror is my problem, huh? I'm gonna find a way to get that summumma....


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I'd go back to age 18 and get out of town right after high school. I'd go to NYC to live for a decade of live music and city life, and then move to Colorado or Utah.


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## TMHeimer (Dec 19, 2019)

Besides the shrewd investments, probably nothing. I DID make shrewd investments, taught Band for 19 years and retired in 1996 at age 42. Now I play a bit professionally each summer and scuba dive. Oh, and watch a lot of TV and play on the internet. I don't do much else. 
If someone dumped a big pile of money in my lap at age 18 I'm 90% sure I'd just invest it and live off it. College Degree--no way. Too much work. Courses that I may like, perhaps. Teach Band--yeah maybe--if I could do it an hour or so a day, do a concert and take a month off. Oh, that hour would be about at 2 P.M.--who wants to get up early?


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## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

I'd go back to age 24. Then, I would try like helll to avoid the industrial accident that nearly Djangoed my right hand and ended a promising playing career. So many wonderful things have happened to me since that accident that for me things balanced out in life. But there is not a day that goes by that I don't wish I could play better. C'est la vie!


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

Room2201974 said:


> I'd go back to age 24. Then, I would try like helll to avoid the industrial accident that nearly Djangoed my right hand and ended a promising playing career. So many wonderful things have happened to me since that accident that for me things balanced out in life. But there is not a day that goes by that I don't wish I could play better. C'est la vie!


"So many wonderful things have happened to me since that accident that for me things balanced out in life."


This made me think. We have Schumann's impressive creations because of the contraption.


Clara wrote:
"Much happened while I was away. When I returned from one of my trips my dear Robert had done something terrible to his hand. He attempted to have one of his fingers strengthened with a strange contraption. He felt that his weak finger hampered his ability at the piano and this procedure would enable him to perform better. He had such high hopes, but the contraption failed and he no longer could play as he had before. **is man could not perform the beautiful music he composed as he wanted and I was determined make his music known...I would be his instrument, interpret his creations, and introduce them to the world."


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

I’d go back to when I was eleven. No worries, no responsibilities, no pressure. Just spend my days having fun. Unfortunately you have to grow old. But fortunately I may have grown old but I’ve never grown up!:lol:


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

senza sordino said:


> I'd have taken better care of my teeth.


Me too. I have only 5 & 1/2 teeth left in my lower jaw. I have all my uppers though. I call it the gravity theory. Had I stood on my head all my life I probably would have all my lower teeth and few of the uppers. The 1/2 tooth is because one tooth broke off just after Covid lock down and the dentist said wait, which I was more than happy to do under the circumstances.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Woodduck said:


> I'd go back to being an egg and find a way to tell my mother to marry someone different.


Well that is a real bummer. Sorry to hear that. On the bright side, if you had a different dad, you wouldn't be you, and we here at TC would be all the poorer for it.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

SixFootScowl said:


> Well that is a real bummer. Sorry to hear that. On the bright side, if you had a different dad, you wouldn't be you, and we here at TC would be all the poorer for it.


Yes, if a bloke 500 million years ago hadn't mixed it up with another pretty little thing, at that exact moment, we wouldn't be here.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Luchesi said:


> Yes, if a bloke 500 million years ago hadn't mixed it up with another pretty little thing, at that exact moment, we wouldn't be here.


I'll put it about 6000 years ago, but the rest of the story holds.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

SixFootScowl said:


> I'll put it about 6000 years ago, but the rest of the story holds.


There's poplar trees in Colorado that are twice as old as your earth and universe.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Luchesi said:


> There's poplar trees in Colorado that are twice as old as your earth and universe.


By what method did someone determine that age?


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Let's not discuss creationism and evolution here, please.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

science said:


> Let's not discuss creationism and evolution here, please.


Hey, I might want to go back to the time I was a one cell organism. It'll give me the chance to get it right the second time.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

starthrower said:


> Hey, I might want to go back to the time I was a one cell organism. It'll give me the chance to get it right the second time.


Get some photosynthesis in you. That's the way to live.


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## Christina Barrett (May 29, 2020)

When I left Florida and moved to New Orleans.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

SixFootScowl said:


> By what method did someone determine that age?


We're not allowed to speak of it. People will think it's a religion.


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## cwarchc (Apr 28, 2012)

Not get married?


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

I keep flicking through this thread and wondering what I would say to my younger self and when. And I just don't know. Stick to your plan to read Marine Biology at University? Ah, but then I would never have met Mrs Pat. Don't take up the french horn? Good advice but trivial. Don't turn down the offer of a research job in Germany? Maybe that's the one, because then I wouldn't be stuck in this stupid, decaying country.


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## Potiphera (Mar 24, 2011)

I'd love to have become a great pianist!


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Get that hot muscle car I never had as a kid!


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

Career wise, I wouldn't change a thing. I did the right things, made the right decisions on working for the various churches I was organist. Personal life wise I would have skipped the first three failed marriages ... the only great thing that came of one of those failed marriages was my Son who is now 33. 

My present wife is a keeper for sure ... we've been together since 2004 which is also the longest (in years) any of my relationships have been. 

We have a nice house - we will retire the mortgage in 2 years, we own outright our two cars and every stick of furniture in the house. We have a good income (both retired from the 40 hour work week) and we did everything right with out investments during the working years so that we now have a monthly annuity arriving to supplement our pensions and my church salary. 

My present church position is the best of all of them ... it's a large church (1,500 members) with a wonderful organ and piano and a very active music program. The church has been able to sustain the entire salaried staff during this pandemic so the finances of this church are quite sound. 

Kh


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## Harmonie (Mar 24, 2007)

I'd go back somewhere from 5th grade to 12th grade.

It would be quite bizarre to go all of the way back to 5th grade. That was a while before high speed internet and smart phones (and I'm a millennial, so I wouldn't survive. I didn't do too well back in the 90s and early 00s without that stuff to begin with :lol, but I have my reasons for thinking of going back that far.

12th grade at latest because my freshman year of college was when health issues started creeping up on me. Health issues I'd really like to go back and handle getting taken care of better. But I'd definitely have to go final semester 12th grade, otherwise I'd be stuck back in my high school's highly competitive marching band with an instrument I haven't played in well over a decade. :lol:

I've given this too much thought, haven't I?


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## Open Book (Aug 14, 2018)

I'd go back to age 5 if I could somehow persuade my parents to give me music lessons, piano perhaps. Maybe at that age it would have been easier and I would have persisted at it.

Also, I'd listen to more classical music at a young age and build up more knowledge than I have. Learning new pieces was easier when I was younger, too.


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## Guest (May 30, 2020)

senza sordino said:


> I'd have taken better care of my teeth. And not allowed myself to get those three nasty sunburns as a teenager.
> 
> And spoken to that lovely girl at university..................


Seems like a reasonably safe thing to try and fix. I'll go with this. Anything more significant risks upsetting the timeline and I wouldn't want to lose either wife or sons!


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## Guest (May 30, 2020)

Harmonie said:


> I've given this too much thought, haven't I?


Probably, but you enjoyed it didn't you?


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Potiphera said:


> I'd love to have become a great pianist!


If I could go back I'd talk my parents into shipping my grandfather's Steinway piano to our house. If my Dad had done that I'd know how to play piano. He ended up giving it away.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I might be privileged to say I wouldn't change anything, yet. No, I'm not trying lecture, my time may come still. But I had what I felt were regrets, to later find that it was only the green looking greener on the other side.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

There are lots of regrets, but I'm in a good enough place now, and too close to retirement, to want to go backwards.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

starthrower said:


> If I could go back I'd talk my parents into shipping my grandfather's Steinway piano to our house. If my Dad had done that I'd know how to play piano. He ended up giving it away.


Yes, I'm at pianist today because my younger brother begged to take piano lessons. We got a piano --- and then he begged to be allowed to quit after a few weeks.


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## TMHeimer (Dec 19, 2019)

I'd go back to maybe age 18, make those shrewd investments as the OP mentioned, and do whatever struck my fancy the rest of my life (which is basically what I've done the last 24 years, retiring at age 42). Play some clarinet for sure. Take lessons, and/or some college courses (but no slugging out 4 years in a row for a degree). Scuba dive (started that 15 years ago). And most of all, lot's of travel.


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