I took option #3, but it’d be a difficult proposition: Best year–pick any of my high school years. Worst year: Probably the beginning of the divorce/child custody battle.
Still, my worst years weren’t all that bad, but my best years were freakin’ terrific. Sure, I’ll take a do-over.
Hell no. I’ve had some good years in my life, but good never stands out with the startling clarity that bad does. Not for anything.
The best and worst year of my life overlap so much that I’d end up with 400 days or so. I’m not interested in reliving them.
No way. There was one year of my life (actually 15 months, but, whatever) that’s I’ve often said to people “If someone offered my $5,000,000.00 to relive that period, I’d tell them to stuff it”.
The worst year of my life was 2008, or the last 7 months of it anyway; the best was 1994. If I could arrange that 1994 followed 2008, I’d happily endure 2008 again - because it’s 2010 now so clearly I survived.
1994 was a time of youth, health, endless possibilities, love, beauty, living somewhere amazing, with a good job, lots of money and really fun active friends, and even occasional feelings of bliss that I knew at the time were ephemeral, but didn’t care. I’d love to live that again.
I put “no,” but then it hit me: Can I redo things in the worst year, knowing what I know now? If I could and did, I’d probably much further along in life than I am now.
I can’t imagine any reason I would ever willingly relive 2001, during which I was treated for stage 4 lymphoma. No year could possibly be good enough to make that trade.
If I’m still a pawn of fate, no way I go back to my Dark Times.
If I can go back with the sensibilities I’ve cultivated since then, hell yes. I’d get the girl of my dreams, instead of losing her, not waste 10 years of my life before fully committing to school and unfucking myself.
Actually I’m not the least bit interested in reliving any “best years”, but then I’m funny that way.
not just no, but HELL NO!
like somebody upthread mentioned, 2008 is the worst year of *my *life, too.
i will never forget, as much as i’d like to. so few people can say they lost their favorite cat, SO **and **job in the space of a few months. 
I’d certainly do it, but not because I’m particularly eager to relive my best year (whatever that would be). I just think it’d be a neat thing to do, and certainly I’d gain some perspective. Granted, part of this may be that I’ve never had some really catastrophic time frame (messy divorce, e.g.).
Also, like others have said, it’s a more attractive choice if you’re something other than a passive observer. For most of us, no doubt, our worst times are so bad in large part because of all the ways we fucked things up. So, fine, send me back to my worst year and I won’t fuck up as much this time; it’ll be ok.
To quote a recent GraphJam:
[sup] [/sup]Hell[sup]No [/sup]
My dead body
Certainly, why would so many not???
Remember you KNOW it will be your worst year ahead of time!! So, you start the year and change what you do so stuff does not happen. Stuff you can’t fix like someone dying of disease you add more comfort to and prepare others for so it is not nearly as nasty when it comes. But if an accident, you fix it, take the person with you that day or do whatever needed so they are not where they were. Lose a job? Have another lined up way ahead, I mean you know who is hiring…and get some revenge ahead of time too.
I could easily turn a worst year into one of the best, and then do my best year and have two great experiences. I mean think, just your knowledge of who wins what games, what stocks are hot and so on could turn a bad year into a dandy real fast!!
I am amazed everyone would not welcome an opportunity to change stuff and where better than your worst year?
Nowhere in the original question does it say that you will do anything other than experience exactly what happened the first time.
I’ve had a lot of good years, and a couple not-great ones, so why would I up my percentage of badness by reliving one of my few bad ones, when if I just keep going normally things are likely to be pretty good?
Gus, if you did not know you were repeating, then you in fact are not repeating, but doing it the first time. That means you may make different choices, even if you did not know everything about the year. And if you do know, you fix it, or mitigate it, and all the time make more money with bets and stocks while you do that.
My worst fucking sucked- but if I relived it, I might very well be able to affect it more positively.
And besides, the best would make it worth it.
When do I choose, however? The best is yet to come!
We’ll have to wait for a clarification from Annie. I would also like a clarification on whether the genie determines which years you relive or if you select them based on your judgment of which were the best and worst years.
Besides which, my worst year was mostly due to other people - I was fairly young and not in control of my life and destiny. Hell, that’s what made it my worst year. Even the year we were literally returning bottles to make the rent money we were so poor wasn’t as bad, because we had brought it on ourselves. When the outside factors are uncontrollable, I can’t do anything to make it better.
Never mind to much information.
Leon497 you truly have no idea how crappy your life can be and there is nothing yo can do to prevent it.
Same here…and, same here.
The only way I’d consent to this if I were given the opportunity to make different choices, thereby allowing me to avoid the bad parts which were directly triggered by the good parts. If that’s not possible – no fucking way.