# If you could turn back time. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 20, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773 "2009-04-20T20:43:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/61 "2009-04-23T13:33:49Z")
Call her, dammit! Unless you’re married. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/62 "2009-04-23T13:48:49Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Call her, dammit! Unless you’re married. Call her to say that they’ve never met, but he’s been obsessed with her since highschool and is now cyberstalking her, and would she like to go out? I could see that this would work out real well. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Teaira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9d8465/32.png) [@Teaira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teaira)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/63 "2009-04-23T14:21:22Z")
I would not have moved in with my boyfriend and signed that lease when I was 19. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/64 "2009-04-23T14:28:31Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Call her to say that they’ve never met, but he’s been obsessed with her since highschool and is now cyberstalking her, and would she like to go out? > > I could see that this would work out real well. 😛 I’m sure he could phrase it more tactfully than that. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![PotLuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@PotLuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PotLuck)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/65 "2009-04-23T16:00:30Z")
When my first serious, long-term boyfriend appeared on my doorstep tearfully itemizing all the positive things he’d do in his life if I changed my mind about ending our relationship, I would have said, “By all means, go ahead and do those things because that’s how grown-ups should conduct themselves but please accept the fact that _we are over_.” ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/66 "2009-04-23T17:30:08Z")
I went to a well-regarded private college that gave me a partial scholarship. I should have gone to one of the less-well-regarded-but-still-NOT-shabby state schools that offered me a full ride (with ROOM AND BOARD in one case!). Snobbish me wanted the “better” school, and my parents said they could afford it (it was a compromise, not my first choice). Then my dad lost his job after a year. That changed the landscape. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/67 "2009-04-23T17:51:25Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Call her to say that they’ve never met, but he’s been obsessed with her since highschool and is now cyberstalking her, and would she like to go out? > > I could see that this would work out real well. 😛 Call her to say that he’s finally worked up the nerve. If she says no, and he keeps track of her, THAT’S stalking. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/68 "2009-04-23T18:28:51Z")
I have a whole list of things that I would change. However, since changing any one of them would probably result in my not meeting SWMBO and sharing the past 16 years of our lives together, I’ll just say thanks but no thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/69 "2009-04-23T18:46:32Z")
I’d go back and skip going to the prom my senior year in HS. I started dating the girl I took. That led to a cascade of Bad Stuff which, I am reasonably sure, would never have happened otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/70 "2009-04-23T19:16:57Z")
There are so many sad stories in this thread. I’m so sorry for those of you who have life-changing regrets, especially **Pazu** and **Hypno-Toad**. Mine’s pretty mundane. If I’d changed a couple of major things I might now have a good education and a well-paying job, but then I wouldn’t have met my soul-mate and love of my life for 27 years, and I wouldn’t have discovered my most beloved music (and which would have changed the life of one of the artists), so I’ll go with a small thing. I wish I hadn’t eaten that damn chocolate bar! After being overweight almost all my life and trying diet after diet that didn’t work, I finally found a diet that worked and was easy (low carb). The pounds melted off, MELTED, I tell you. In less than a year I’d lost 60+ and was only within 15 pounds of my goal. But it was Christmas and all the ladies at work had chocolate/candy jars scattered around, and I took one of those mini Hershey bars. Hey, I’d been good, I’d lost weight, I deserved a treat. After months of never being hungry I was ravenous after eating it, so I figured, hell, I just went off the diet so I’ll eat everything I’ve been missing, and so I did. I can go back on the diet anytime, right? But I didn’t. Not only did I gain back everything I’d lost, I gained 50 extra pounds besides. Now that I’m older I’m back on the diet, not to lose weight, but for my blood sugar and high blood pressure. They’re perfectly controlled, and I have lost weight, but the side-benefit weight loss is excruciatingly slow. No more melting. So, if I knew then what I know now, either I wouldn’t have eaten that chocolate bar, or I would have had an orgy with the foods I’d been missing for JUST a few days, then gone back on the diet immediately and stuck with it. I maybe would have only gained back 10 pounds. _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![donnah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@donnah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donnah)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/71 "2009-04-23T19:50:34Z")
September 5th, 1997: Would never have gotten on the plane to Sweden…never ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/72 "2009-04-23T19:54:16Z")
I was in my 20’s and still stinging from a broken engagement I’d suffered a couple of years earlier. I do _not_ regret the broken engagement in any way. In hindsight, I ended up much better off. But it did screw with my ability to carry on a functional relationship for a while. I went through a period of pushing everybody away, followed by a period of being overly clingy, before things eventually balanced out. It was during this second period that I started dating “Sara.” We had some fun, but that was about it. The relationship didn’t have legs; Sara knew it and I _should have_ known it too. We only lasted about three months before she dropped me, basically for being way too clingy. I don’t regret that, either. Sara and I would not have been right for each other long term, even if I had been emotionally stable at the time. At that time I had had a part-time job as a doorman at a comedy club for about a year. I had a _huge_ crush on an adorable waitress there, “Darla.” We developed a fun and sometimes flirty friendship, but I was convinced she was way out of my league, and anyway, my romantic track record wasn’t going so well; nothing ever developed. Until one night when, completely out of the blue, Darla looked at me and said, “You know what, Wheelz, I think you and I should have sex.” I guarantee she was dead serious. And being about 3 weeks into my doomed relationship with Sara, what did this moron say? “I can’t. I’m seeing somebody.” :smack: :smack: :smack: To this day, I remain certain I turned down the best sex of my life that night. But by the time Sara and I were done, Darla had just started dating the guy she would eventually marry. :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: So to answer the OP, I would ask the genie to send me back to that moment in time so I could change my answer to _“There’s a drugstore right on the way back to my apartment. LET’S GO!”_ ---
**Author:** ![MannyL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/73 "2009-04-30T01:24:19Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > September 6, 2005. > > I’d have locked my damn computer before going into that meeting. Still sheepish about that? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/74 "2009-04-30T09:04:00Z")
Bu,bu,bu… does taking a different major, which would have involved going to a different college, wich would have required convincing my parents, count as a process or a decision? Things didn’t end up working anywhere near half bad, but any of the majors I would have chosen before the one I did would have meant less economic hardship for my brothers’ own colleges. ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/75 "2009-04-30T14:15:11Z")
I would have called my brother to wish him a happy birthday. He died three weeks later of a pulmonary embolism. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/76 "2009-04-30T14:34:42Z")
There is a girl I would have asked: “Are you interested in me?” It would not have changed events in any way, but I would like to know. I think I may have accidentally broken her heart. ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/77 "2009-04-30T14:46:24Z")
I’d have gone to China to teach English and put off graduate school for a year or so. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/78 "2009-04-30T15:43:50Z")
I would have taken the minimum wage job in day care instead of the better paying office job. ---
**Author:** ![dragonlady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@dragonlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonlady)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/79 "2009-04-30T16:13:23Z")
[quote=“TruCelt, post:32, topic:493773”] I’d go back to about age 22, look up my high school sweetheart and tell him how much I missed him and loved him. I still do, but he’s happily married now so it would be wrong to contact him./QUOTE] And I thought I was the only one. I run across him about every ten years or so and it ruins me for months afterward. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773/80 "2009-04-30T16:20:51Z")
I would redo my sophomore year at Purdue U. with the wisdom and maturity I have now. I ultimately got a better major and education by getting my butt kicked out for academic dumbassery; that year is the beginning of a long string of screw ups I made as a young adult. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time/493773.md?page=5)