Jaron

There's the cliched saying, "History repeats itself." That has nothing to do with this post.



The question I'm posing to all of you is this:

If you could go back in time and change anything you wanted about your life, if you could start over from the beginning with everything you've experienced (the good and the bad alike), would you do anything differently?

My answer is this:

Fuck, no.

My reasoning is this:

Everything that's happened to me, and everything I've done, has brought me to where I am now. The good and the bad... I've spent more time in gutters than I have in beds, I've been a druggie and am currently an alcoholic. I've fucked up the lives of most people I know, at least at one point or another, and I've fucked up the lives of more people than I even know of. I've been through so much stuff that most people would say is pretty fucking tough, and I've seen enough to make me feel fucking old and feeble at only eighteen years old. I'm an insomniac, and my health is on the decline. I don't expect to live past fourty, if even that long, and still... I wouldn't change a thing. Without the bullshit that's happened, the things that've come out of that would never have happened. I would have had different experiences, for better or for worse, and I wouldn't have been the way I am now.

That isn't to say that I won't change things in the future, because I know that I will.

Your experiences define you, and whether or not you like what you see in the mirror, it's who you are.



To add another cliche, considering that I started with one, "Better the evil you know."

athleticsfan615

I would have to say no because the moments in life you would want to change are the ones that have the most impact on the present. You will think twice about something if it has produced a negative experience in the past.

Stare At The Sun

No way, who's to say that i wouldnt be dead right now, had i not got in that car accident, or dated some stupid chick for 2 years...-_-...I'm reminded of an episode of DS9, about linear existance...*shrug* i like my life the way it is, and i wouldnt change a thing, not the good, and not the bad

LDeer

Screw you all, I'd change it.

Jaron

What would you change, then, if you don't mind me asking?

[Edit: Erm... rather, "if you don't mind sharing" would be more appropriate seeing as it shouldn't really matter if I ask or not. :P ]

tardka

I don't think I could live with the fact that I would end up as someone else. As mentioned earlier, most of the events one would be intersted in changing are those that affected their life. Being perfectly happy with where I am at now, why bother changing it. You also have to consider that if you change something, you won't be guaranteed that something else will occur that you would have rather changed.

specialagent18

I would change one thing, and here is why. How awesome would it be to take some important moment, some random encounter, and reverse the outcome. How different would your life be? And how interesting would it be to see how that turned out? So much of our lives are defined by such random occurences, and it would be interesting to see what the difference was...

LDeer

Oh, several things in my life that went horribly, horribly wrong and affected alot of people around me. I could live with myself knowing that somewhere out there, at least someone's more happy now.

Jaron

But could you live with yourself knowing that somebody else is much, much more miserable?

sportsrule101

trying to stop someone from commiting suicide.

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Jaron

Yeah, but if someone actually wants to commit suicide, REALLY wants to, then what chance do you have to stop them? And what right?

micah67

One thing I'd like to change. I don't think it would change the outcome of my life but who knows when dealing with Chaos Theory.

I came back from Vegas one night and drove straight home from the airport. It wasn't late and I could have stopped off at my parents house, as it was on the way home, but I didn't. There's no reason why I didn't and there's no reason why I should have, but I didn't. At that time I visited quite often and it had been a week or two since I had last been by (I've since moved further away).

My grandmother, who was living with my parents, died in the wee-hours two days later.

I wish I would have stopped by and visited with them and her. That was 15 years ago and I still wish I had stopped off on the way home.

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~micah

ARTelevision

I would change everything.
I was a stupid ass when I was young and made every mistake in the book and paid in blood, sweat, and tears. My entire past was a waste of time.

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Jaron

But ART, you've learned from your "mistakes" and are a different person as a result.

ARTelevision

But Jaron, as I said, when asked :

"If you could go back in time and change anything you wanted about your life, if you could start over from the beginning with everything you've experienced (the good and the bad alike), would you do anything differently?", my answer is:

Yes. I would change everything because I was a stupid ass in the past.

The only thing I have learned is that I was a stupid ass.

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Jaron

The real question I guess that I'm asking, then, is whether or not your mistakes have been worth it.

ARTelevision

no way. how could a mistake be worth anything?
by definition, a mistake should not have happened.

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MSD

With the knowledge I have now, I would go back and persuade my father to go to the doctor for a colonoscopy before the tumor ruptured his intestine and killed him slowly and painfully over two years. If it hadn't broken through, they could've gotten it out completely.

Also, see my first journal entry for something that I'd like to have been able to prevent.

The last thing would be to pay more attention in my first semester in college instead of failng most of my classes that I easily could have passed had I not spent 6 hours a day at the pool table.

mustang91

There are only two events I'd even consider to change in my life...the not so serious (making a joke at the wrong time. It was a stupid racial joke I made in the wrong company and completely didn't mean/realize) and the serious(cheating on the girl who I eventually came to realize was the love of my life).

I wouldn't fucking change a thing if I could, though I would live my life differently if I could know all that I do at this point in time.

There's no reason to sacrifice the knowledge you know now for "better" choices earlier in life. Take every scrap of knowledge you have, that you can get. It's better to know than to not know.

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"I'm desperately not trying to feel the early, preconceived notion of love that only exists in top 40's pop songs."

"He who wants money, means and content are without three good friends." - Shakespeare

"...like Vietnam, or those bands that never got over the fact they opened for Nirvana, I never got over her." -Nick Hornsby

me_ok_too

Sure, Things did not turn out like I had planned. I remember in high school writing about how I would have the 2.5 children and have a great career. All before 25.......well it didnt work out, but at 33 I had the most beautiful son, now approaching 38 I realize that life can not be planned. You swim with the ebb and flows of the tides and make the best of it. No I do not think I would change a thing. Life is not perfect, but its life. My favorite quote from a cheesey scif fi movie....."Remember where ever you go there you are."

Jaron

I think we're using different definitions, then. What I'm talking about is times where you thought that you fucked up, maybe not very much or maybe a shitload, and when things happened despite and in spite of you. What I'm talking about is when things went so horribly "wrong" that all you could think of what how much better things would have been without that happening. What I'm talking about is fuckups, where you've hurt yourself and other people. Things that you would change in your own life, things that YOU did or didn't do that you know that you "should have" or "shouldn't have" that you hated yourself for, at least at the time.

I've had plenty of experiences like that. My first knife fight, I still wouldn't take back if I could. Fist fights with my father, started by me. Getting on cocaine when I was thirteen years old. My first cigarette, at nine and a half. My alcoholism. My voilence, smashing a girl in the head with a brick when I was seven years old. Everything stupid and hurtful and mean and just plain low and inhuman that I've done to others and to myself, that if I'd been thinking I wouldn't even have begun to think of doing.

Those are "mistakes" to me, but they've brought me to where I am now.



If mistakes bring you somewhere, who is to say that you should or shouldn't have done something that you didn't or did do in the first place?

TawG

hmmm... This prolly got me off on the wrong foot, but im suddenly struk with the thought that if its possible to do once, its possible to do twice

so i would go back, do everything differently. Live the good life of the sinner, take pleasure in all the things you are not supposed to take pleasure in, see where it takes me, what experiences i have, and what i think of it. Then i would go back and do it again, only the way i think is the right way. This would ofcourse have been done without losing myself, but to have had the pleasure of screwing over the 'polis', to see what happens when i take apart the world (ehlo donnie darko). I would then go back again and try to make society a better society/polis to live in (ehlo Plato). Who is to say that someone who has done something bad doesnt know whats good? thats the problem with society today, the ones that have, arent trusted to change, and the ones who havent, dont know how.

Ive had a few sinful urges in my life, but im too afraid of the consiquences it might have. I sometimes think of what would have happend if i had done this or that, and it allways takes me back to the point that society is holding me back, maybe for my own good, but i dont know whats better for me untill i've tried it. This is ofcourse to the better of the society/polis we live in, we cant have people running around doing whatever they want, but how can we have someone making decisions for the society/polis about things they dont know anything about/have experienced. So how can i know that the society/polis knows best when the ones in charge most of the time/sometimes dont know what they're doing.

So yeah, i would go back
Ofcourse, this is just one of my blabberings pay no attention to me

hobo

I have been thinking a lot about the person that I have become. Although I keep thinking about how changes to my life would be great, after further consideration, I wouldn't change a thing. I know that a lot of the most memorable moments in my life are negative ones, but I can clearly see that I have changed from those events. I only wish I could share my life's experiences with my future children (years from now) so that they will become better people, but since I likely won't be able to, I will have to make sure they experience the right experiences and think the right thoughts from behind the scenes.

NeverBorn

There are certain things that have happened in the past that I would like to change but wouldn't for fear of losing what happend on the good side. I try to have this policy of no regrets

gremlinx8

There are certain things in my life that I wish I could go back and do over, or take back, but I know that without them, I wouldn't be the type of person I am today. Those bad/negative times often determine what type of person you are. So I wouldn't change a thing, I keep the good and the bad.

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tedrlord

I would definitely do so, but only so long as I could keep the knowledge and memories I'd gained this time around. If I could, I wouldn't need to repeat the mistakes I'd made as I would have already learned from them. If I couldn't, then it would be useless to repeat my life, since I wouldn't know where I screwed up anyway.

Specifically, I had a lot of problems as a kid, that ultimately meant that I missed out on most of junior high and high school. I still haven't been able to work through college as a result. I've relatively recently been able to figure out particular health problems that were a large factor in the difficulties I'd had when I was younger, and I'd like to see where I'd be today if I'd been able to seek treatment before I was so badly affected.

rockzilla

The stipulation that I get to keep all of my accumulated experiences was the clincher. I'd fix every mistake I've ever made, or at least try, and there are tons of them. Like ART, the only thing I've learned is that I was a stupid ass, and I probably still am. Even living my life over again with this knowledge, I'm sure there would be a whole new avalanche of mistakes for me to make.

We're not perfect creatures, we learn from our mistakes, probably moreso than our successes. A mistake may not be pleasant, but it does have value. My mistakes, the suffering I've gone through because of them and the positives I've scavenged from them are just as much a part of me as the stuff I got right on the first try, if not more.

marshall26

i'd do it all over again, doing what i wanted to, not what i thought i had to

cliche

Wouldn't change anything: surely if I did, I'd only end up regretting something in the "new" life and want to change that!

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lemming

hell yeah id go back and do it again, that is assuming i remember everything i did the first time around, and i can assure you my results from the sexual purity test would be alot lower the second time thru! I love who i am now, but sometimes i look back and think i shoulda done that!

Moonduck

*shrug* A recurring theme in conversation is how many regrets do you have in your life. I bring it up now and again with people I know to see how they gauge these things. I find it fascinating. I have two regrets in my life, and only two, and I would only change the lesser of the two had I the chance.

1) I regret, lightly, having not gone to West Point when I had the option. It really was an amazing oppurtunity missed. I would not change this decision though as I would not have met my wife (met her in local college) and would not be happily married with two kids that I adore.

2) I regret refusing to go to my Senior Prom. A very nice girl somehow screwed up the courage to ask me to prom, and did so basically in class with about 30 of our peers listening. I callously refused as I thought proms were stupid (still do). I realized later the amazing courage that it took that girl to ask me out and to do so in such a public way. It shames me that I did not either relent out of respect for more courage than I would've shown, or at least to have made some excuse so as to let her off. This I would change.

To an extent, I find it odd that I would be willing to concieve of travelling in time to correct something as simple as being a thoughtless cad to a girl I've not seen since we graduated (and will likley never see), but that I can think of nothing else in my life, including turning down the chance to go to West Point. I think it goes to show how satisfied I am with my life, how happy I am to be husband and father to my wonderful wife and kids.

I do regret how I treated poor Claudine Blanc though. I hope she has forgotten it.

Heh, we remember the strangest things....

The.Lunatic

Depends on my defintion of time travel. Have you ever read the book timeline. Its got some very intresting theroys that it covers.

Quantum foam and all.

Regardless acording to quantum theory not only must there be multiple universes there must be a universe in the multiverse that represents every point in time ever in history, and in the future i would imagine to a point where it begins or something like that. I'm not sure who much i beleive this theory even though there is evidence that can so far only be explained with the quantum theroy.

But by traveling through time to another universe you wouldn't afferct yourself at all.

So it might be intresting to experiment with other universes playing god so to speak to see what you can cause to happen.

However it might send rifts througout other very close universes in which who knows what might happen you might institanously create an infinite more amount of yous.

I think it would fuck with this the very fabric that represents the multiverse.

Its like a red light wave shining on a wall and showing up blue. Its just not possible within the spectrum.

Chances are everything is compeltly false then again if anything is possible everything i just said could be true in some universe

[/crazyed rant]

xman

repeat and change it while im there

32v4c

I'd go back to 1990, start coding like a fiend, develop ebay, google and amazon all at once and patent half the ideas on the internet, plus get a corner on all domain names...

Hell yeah! We live in an era of massive opportunity with the only barrier to entry being who has the idea first.

Back to the Future here I come!

Katyblu

Assuming I keep the knowledge I have now I would definitely go back and change a few things. There are some things I have done that I am not proud of. I don't necessarily think they would change the overall outcome of my life but maybe they would make it a little more pleasent for me in the future.

Plus wouldn't it be cool to go back and relive your most wonderful moments ever? I know there are memories of them but to be able to relive times when I was at my happiest would be spectacular.

wario

Um, maybe the girl you smashed in the head with a brick should have a say in it. So what tidbit of knowledge did you get from that experience that was so valuable that you can justify the brick thing?

supersix2

Sounds sappy, but I'd go back 2 years to 2001, 11th grade, and ask out the girl that got away.

Lame....yes, but its the one thing i really regret about high school.

cowlick

I would definately change things if I was given the chance to go back.

To me this is a question of, "Are you satisfied with your regrets?" And I am not satisfied with my regrets. In fact, I regret them.

I'd go back to college, in NYC, where I failed to bother to learn anything, failed to see anything, and failed to experience anything. Sure I came out of college with a good degree, got a good job, a great wife, I've got a nice house. But I regret now the opportunities I lost then.

I'd go back to high school when I quit showing up at my karate school after 12 years because I was out for a few months with an injury. Sure I still know lots of karate and I still practice as much as I want. But I never did open the school I was planning. I wonder how it would have gone if I did.

I'd go back...

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koli70

I know lots of things I would change, the biggest one being moved too a totally different state in the begining of high school. If I'd stayed in Michigan I wouldnt have dropped out of high school and I'd be starting college right now instead of waiting a year or so. But I wouldnt have met my best friend and a great guy which I know will bring amazing new experiances that will surpass whatever could have been. I wouldnt change a thing.

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