If you could relive the past with what you know now . . .

In My Humble Opinion
1

(Prompted by this thread and by my endless second guessing of the choices I’ve made in the past.)

I know this question has been asked a jillion times, but I have a new twist on it. Here are the ground rules:

  1. We only allow plausible sounding, scientific mumbo jumbo here, so the only allowed method of going back into the past is quantum entanglement of the particles in your neurons – in other words what you know now gets “impressed” upon your younger brain – there is no actual transfer of matter. Only your consciousness gets transferred. Which brings us to:

  2. The further back you go, the more likely the information you know now will be lost because of random decoherence. To make this easy, you can only take back knowledge twice as far as you’ve known it. An example: Say you want to go back 10 years and invent Google, but you only learned to program computers starting 4 years ago. You could go back 8 years and still retain knowledge of how to invent Google, but of course it will already have been invented and you’ll be too late. If you went back 10 years, you’d have this fuzzy memory of wanting to invent a Google-like search engine, but you’d have no idea how to do it and still miss out.

So with those rules in mind, what time in your life would you want to go back and change, having the knowledge you have now, but realizing you can only take it back so far?

I’ll start.

At first I thought that I’d want to go back to my teenaged self and start a rock band. I’ve played guitar most of my life, but didn’t get real good until a little over a decade ago. So not only would I still be a broke and hungry sucky teenaged musician, I’d also have the vague recollection that I used to be (or would eventually be) good, possibly making me even more miserable than I was back then.

So I decided I’d settle on going back just 9 1/2 years ago and spend that time enjoying again two of my cats who died this year. I wouldn’t want to go back 13 years when they were born because A. my very first kitty I ever had in my life died 10 years ago and that was the hardest thing I ever went through in my life (and I don’t want to relive it), and B. my youngest cats are 9 1/2 years old and I might miss out on getting them if too many things change in the past. And this time, instead of feeding them dry food for most of their lives (which precipitated their eventual kidney failure), I’d keep them on wet food and hopefully have them around longer.

Okay, your turn . . .

2

I would go back to being 12 years old again. That would give me the knowledge to deal with high school and my crappy family life throughout my teens, using the experience I’d gained by my early 20’s. I’d also have a faint idea of what I need to beware of for the rest of my 20’s.

3

I’d either go back to HS and be in a band, go back to college, drink less and get laid a hell of a lot more, or go back to the 90s and make a hell of a lot of money investing in stocks.

4

I’d go back to being 13.5 and concentrate a hell of a lot more on my social skills. And convince them to feed me a lot more. And then I’d concentrate on the ladies a lot more when the time came.

5

I wouldn’t want to invent Google, but I’d go back and mortgage my house to buy stock during the IPO.

6

I’m thinking two things, one long-term and one short-term.

Going back to my eighteen-year-old self, just as I was starting college. I was a late bloomer socially, and not that concerned with missed opportunities when I was in high school. College was when I first started making decisions that affected the rest of my life, and if I had known then what I know now there are a lot of things I would have done differently. Even knowing at 18 what I knew at 36 (if I understand the OP correctly; I’m 55 now) would be a big help.

Short-term, if I went back just three years I could avoid a number of stupid things I’ve done in the last year and a half which are preying on my mind and pushing me to the edge of depression.

7

I would go back to when I was in junior high and somehow convince my parents not to move. My social life never recovered from that move, and I think at least some of my teenage unhappiness came from suddenly losing all my friends and not being able to make new ones.

Another thing I’d like to do is change my priorities in college. I majored in Computer Science because it seemed like a safe financial choice, not because I loved programming computers. I would’ve been better off majoring in something like English or art, since I’m more passionate about these subjects than computers.

I would’ve spent more time in college trying to get over my shyness and getting to know people. Living off campus was a mistake – dorms would’ve forced me into contact with more people and I would’ve come out of my shell more quickly.

8

As I am 32, and I didn’t really learn to do anything cool after the age of 20 (save driving, which I’ve been doing since I was 26… I think I would go back to being 16.

this still gives me the MA knowledge (though not the body) as well as enough coherent foreknowledge of things (presidential elections, etc.) that I could make a small fortune.

The usual question that comes up during these discussions is how MUCH do you want to change things?

Enough of a change, and I may not have my daughter. But if I change things with my now-ex, I loose my current awesome wife and smallest kid. Gah.

9

I would change my diet earlier. It took so many years of trial and error to work out what was causing the intense stomach cramps that plagued me through my late teens / early twenties. If I could have that information sooner, my quality of life would be dramatically different. If I could also find a way to avoid catching mono in my late teens, my whole life would change, and it’s hard to see how it wouldn’t be for the better.

10

Maybe this will help. As we add on the years to our lives, our short term memory capability becomes reduced and we start forgetting the names of people we’ve recently met, but yet we can still remember the names of our childhood friends. Think of this as adding on the years to your mind – you’ll lose memories of the folks you’ve recently become acquainted with the further back you go, but you’ll still remember your best friend Jimmy from middle school because you’ve remembered about him for most of your life.

11

I would go back to my 17th birthday and not invite a certain girl.

It would have made my senior year a hell of a lot easier if she hadn’t met my ex-boyfriend at that party.

12

I think I’d go back to about sixteen years old and concentrate on myself more. Save money and travel before college. Go to a different college. Get out and be more social. Stop worrying so much about my weight, but have a more active lifestyle.

13

Do we only get to keep the facts that we know, or can we bring along the attitudes we’ve developed since then? I wish I’d done some things pretty differently in my freshman year of college, but I’m not sure how wisely I would’ve acted on the foreseen consequences back then.

14

Keep in mind that fresher ideas, knowledge, and attitudes will fall away more quickly than stuff that’s taken root long ago. For example, I love cats. I haven’t always though. For a long time I thought of them as targets on the road, until a cat adopted me. Then I fell in love with cats. If I decide to go back into the past far enough, that newer attitude of loving cats will fade away and that old attitude of despising cats will be the only thing I remember.

15
  1. Memorize the winning lottery numbers 60 seconds after the next time they’re drawn.
  2. Wait three hours, then go back four hours.
  3. Profit!
16

I was a popular guy in high-school, but I was a very popular kid in junior-high.

At about 14 or 15 I decided that going out of my way to be popular was a waste of time, which, even in hindsight - it probably was. I shoved aside hanging out with the jocks and put my old friends at arms length. I gravitated, instead toward the nerds and outcasts. We were the type of kids who broke away from the bunch. We were the kids seen smoking out behind the corner, occasionally drinking, and generally causing low-level mayhem. We were the freaks and we loved it.

If given a second chance I would go back to my 13th year, to a time before I went rebel. I would do everything in my power to be the All-American kid.

I would keep my popularity closely guarded and start participating in organized sports. And I would play as hard. I was always fairly athletic having been a farm kid, and was asked every year to join the various teams. I was always first picked for every team sport in Phys-ed class, which were the only sports I participated in and only because I was required to. My size and natural athleticism went wasted outside of Phys-ed. Who knows what difference I may have made had I been on the varsity squad. At the very least my participation would have put one other guy back on the bench.

I would set my goal to become captain/quarterback of the football team and a starter on the basketball team.

I would be a straight A student and take all of the advanced placement courses that were offered at my high-school that I didn’t take advantage of. I would impress all the teachers and adults with my grown up notions and responsibility. I would join as many extra-curricular clubs as I could and be as much a part of the community as possible. I would retain my rank in the school band through my senior year.

Doing all these nerdy things would be bad form for someone trying to be as popular as possible. To temper any perceived geekishness, first, I would need a kickass car. I’m thinking '86 Dodge Shelby Charger turbo - within grasp of a hard working 16 year old yet still pretty kick arse for its day. I would be a half-step ahead of the trends and fads of the 90’s. I would have preternatural knowledge of the catch phrases that were popular parochially. Also, I’d be a truly stand-up guy, know when to relax, and know when to have fun. I wouldn’t tolerate any of the jocks giving anyone a hard time over anything. I wouldn’t stand down from a fight.

I had my admirers in high school, but I think if I played my cards right I could have been every girl’s secret crush. I would play the smart, witty jock, would be kind to everyone, and would never put my own glory or personal achievements in front of my community or friends. Yet, I would throw in just enough rebel to make it all appear genuine.

There was only one girl who I would go after. She was the real-life All-American girl. She was captain of the cheerleading squad, captain of the varsity volleyball team, straight A student, student council president, smart, and well-liked by everyone.

She did not date at all in high-school. Not for lack of interest, however. Simply put, there were no guys good enough for her. She had plans after high-school and they did not involve the rest of us. This is not because she had an air of superiority or was too good to lower herself to anyone else’s level. She was just a great person and wanted nothing other than to make her own way in the world and get out of the sad little economically broken town we all grew up in. She was coolly able to keep everyone at an arms distance while looking great at the same time. All looked up to her.

Given a second trip through, armed with my future knowledge I would be the guy who worked the impossible - I would be the guy dating Emily Ludwigson*.

I don’t regret my wild, misspent youth. It was a blast. It would, however, be interesting to see how things could have been different. It would be like living in a John Mellencamp song.

*Name changed to protect the innocent.

17

Interesting, I’m in the process of reading Replay, which deals with this premise, though the protagonist doesn’t choose how far to go back and still retains all his future knowledge.

If it were me, hmm. I’d like to retain everything I’ve learned in the past 5 years of college, as it has been a big time of personal growth that I’d like to keep. That takes me as far back as 14, but I don’t want to go back there, as we had just moved across the country and I was stuck in a new school with a bunch of kids I had nothing in common with. It wouldn’t be worth it to try and change history and make more friends there as we would be moving out of there in two years.

I wonder if I even want to go back to high school at all. I was lonely, but it was a conscious decision by me to not go out of my way to make friends. But I’m a different person now than I was then, I would probably be a lot more sociable. I had a lot of trouble in high school math, but it would be a lot easier now with a physics degree in my brain. I always did well in english and would probably do even better now. Would I have the patience for it though? Hmm. Maybe I’m better off just starting college over again. Now that I’ve gotten over my social hang-ups I’d probably have an even better time.

18

This was the premise of my NaNoWriMo entry last year. If you find Go Around by Malacandra, you’ll see my 50,000 word dissertation. :slight_smile:

19

I’d go back six years, remember what I did wrong, and make sure I didn’t fuck up that relationship the second time around. Unfortunately, that would be too far back to remember how easy it turned out to be to lose weight and get in shape (so I’d start sooner), and too far back to know to visit a doctor when the first symptoms arrived so I wouldn’t have to have major surgery three times and end up without a colon, but it’d be worth it.

20

I’d go back to 1980, pay more attention & seek less attention in my first year of college, keepoff the weight that I lost & start working out, avoid political & religious & emotional extremes, and find a smart normal moderately religious girl, instead of wasting my time on thinking I can help/save the troubled ones.

Oh yeah, and reconsider the majors & career goals.