The last 3 years and 5 months have not actually been real - they’ve been a precognitive vision of your future.
The actual time is Friday the 8th of January 2010 and you’ve basically fallen asleep for a long time (maybe you “were” at your desk at this time, or in school).
With this in mind, what would you do differently (now that you know how the next 3 years will pan out if you follow the same course)? Or would you do anything differently at all?
Note: You’ve only just woken up now, so you can’t suddenly have another vision later - that’s it. If you’ve forgotten specific bits of knowledge from “these 3 years” (i.e. the vision), that’s your loss - e.g. forgotten/don’t know lottery numbers if you’re that shallow or specific stock market information. You can take nothing with you obviously - because it’s all been a vision. All you have are vague memories of the vision which are entirely contingent upon your remembering of them. lol
I don’t think that is shallow. Money is power and I don’t mean the power to crush the little people. 
I’m on disability, winning a size able jackpot would let me upgrade my life, get medical treatment that Medicare doesn’t pay for, help my mother and my ex and even the people in this hotel I live in.
Anyway since this was a vision and I didn’t know that until I woke up, I wouldn’t have remember any lotto numbers anyway.
So the last 3 and half years didn’t happen yet. There isn’t much I could do for the big events. In my own life, I know what I would want to do, especially in light of this vision, but could I do it? I don’t know. So I guess I would just stay the course.
The big decisions:
I’d still move to Georgia again. I’d still put myself forward for the interim promotion that turned permanent. I’d negotiate salary stuff for both a little differently/better, sure, but I wouldn’t not do either of those things.
I wouldn’t move into the apartment that I first took when I moved to Atlanta. I’d go ahead and get the one with my current landlord. 1) no rats, 2) better maintenance service 3)better location. I might try to buy a place shortly after getting here - now that I know I’ll likely be here longer.
I’d set out to try to have a different footing with a now former coworker. I don’t know that it would make a difference, but maybe it would.
I’d push myself to not let working out slide with the move - it’s really a fight to get going with it again, even though I know it’s worth it.
There would be little things I know I’d do differently, but I don’t see those making a huge impact on where I am or my happiness today.
I’d get my ass back in school, no matter how ‘pointless’ it seemed.
I’d get at least a part time job.
I’d never ever ever get back together with my daughter’s father. Ever. No matter how much he tried to woo me back. Because I knew better but I still did it. I’d be saving myself a LOT of stress and heartache. Him as well.
I’d get serious about losing weight. I think about how much weight I could have lost…but at the same time. I can’t get myself motivated to do it now, how would it be any different then?
I would never let my favorite cat outside. Even though he sees the other cats do it and wants to join them. Never ever let him out cause I was devastated when he just disappeared. I still feel intense guilt and regret over that. I raised him from birth, literally. He was my baby 
I guess my staff reports will go smoother this time.
During the next 11 days, I’d do everything I could, and mobilize as many friends as possible, to help elect Martha Coakley to the Senate.
Plan the wedding whose third anniversary we celebrate this week.
Plan the departure from my former job. THIS advance info would have been a real game changer.
That would certainly explain a few things.
Think much more carefully about whether or not to accept the job I’d be offered in eight months.
Practice the ukulele and bass clarinet more. Other than that, I can’t think of much, because I rather like where I am now.
Mostly, I’m pretty happy with the way the past 3+ years have gone in my personal life. But:
[ul]
[li]I’d put my retirement fund, and all my spare cash, into a S&P 500 index fund, since stocks are going to bounce back quite well;[/li][li]In my vision, my son’s day care (on the same schedule as the county schools) had a number of snow days, without much snow, the week before Snowmageddon; I’d take him places and do active things on those days, so that we weren’t already developing a case of cabin fever before it ever hit;[/li][li]I’d learn from some of my mistakes as a parent that I committed in my vision, and do a number of things somewhat differently, but nothing major;[/li][li]In my vision, I didn’t think much about my weight, and added ~25 pounds, which I started to work off in the latter stages of the vision; I’d keep a better check on my weight this time from the get-go;[/li][li]I’d interview and hire my amazing staffer a few months earlier than I did in my vision;[/li][li]I’d be prepared for some of the twists and turns that have gone on at work over the past few years in my vision, and have plans in my pocket, ready to propose and be adopted, as circumstances changed. These were largely adopted in my vision, but getting them on the table earlier would have been better, and easier to boot.[/li][li]I’m sure there are some other things, but we’re getting into the white noise here.[/li][/ul]
Cry with relief, switch therapists pronto, keep up my exercise regimen. Other things too, but it’d hurt people in my life and I don’t want to risk them reading it.
Hm. That was a month before we moved to our current house and six months before I got pregnant with my daughter. Wellll… I might have the renovators do some different paint colors in the house. I’d lay out my flower gardens differently. When I got pregnant with my daughter I’d try harder to eat well and exercise, because whoo howdy, that got out of hand. And I’d be prepared for the emergency c-section and breastfeeding failure, and also for the complete loss of person headspace, that were to come. I think I’d handle it all more gracefully.
Oh thank Og it was only a dream. I’m so happy now that… wait… this is just a hypothetical? Damn.
I guess I’ll just go make some sports bets.
Oh shit am I pissed. I completed grad school and got through most of a pregnancy- both extremely rewarding experiences that I have absolutely NO interest in repeating again. Do I really have to start over?
Hrm. My first thought was SAY YES TO MR TAO THE FIRST TIME HE ASKS, but I think I really needed that extra time to process it all, and besides, it showed me what a smart guy he was to wait. 
Everything else during that time made sense as it went, so the only things I’d change would be to tell mysel DON’T PASS THAT GUY ON THE DOUBLE LINE, THERS A COP BEHIND YOU, and MAKE SURE YOU’RE HAVING ENOUGH TAXES TAKEN OUT, lol.
First, I’d make sure I have an anniversary present for my wife.
Interesting day you’ve picked.
Oh yeah… note to self:
When that one girl you ever really cared about calls you up out of the blue and wants to see you again, don’t blow her off. I mean it. No matter how entitled you feel, and no matter how much you want to get back at her for all that old crap no one even remembers anymore, blowing her off this time will rank in the top 10 stupidest decisions you’ve made. No, she won’t go to bed with you anymore, but that doesn’t matter. Yes, she’s a bit of an asshole, but that makes no difference either, because, even if you don’t actually know this about yourself at this point, you do in fact love her unconditionally. She will be your friend, and that will be enough.
However, if you for some reason decide to tell her to get lost, she will not give you another shot. This is it.
Seriously. Don’t screw this up.
No one wants to prevent the Boston bombing or any of the various mass shootings that have happened in the past three years? Really?
I would purchase three used cars instead one new car and put them in a big back yard with a 20foot shipping container full of tools, supplies, reading material, solar batteries, food with the expiration dates plainly visable, a couple of those stun guns (no real ones) and feel like I was more equipped to face the next three years and five months than I am now.
by the way wat is the shelf life for one gallon bottles of water?
December 2016