This, and my teenage self would be shocked that I have more money and fewer parents than she would have expected me to now.
I still am my younger self, just older. Younger me would be impressed with older me’s wife, though.
I’d say my young self would be disappointed, but not surprised at all.
I would have been flabbergasted that I would turn into a homebody that enjoys yard work, hates to go to social events, has short hair by choice, gets along just fine without female companionship, drives low budget beater mobiles! Would be surprised to find that after all these years I’m still collecting guns and knives, riding motorcycles, chasing snakes around the fields, living in the house I grew up in.
Due to inflation, younger me would be amazed at my salary and value of our house. Career, while not necessarily what he expected, probably wouldn’t be a huge surprise. By 17 the insecurity was starting to ramp up, so he might be surprised that I’m married with kids (although not as surprised as me before Ms. P and I started dating).
My younger self would be amazed that (despite my best efforts) I have managed to stay alive this long. Honestly, my older self is pretty darn amazed as well.
“If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.” ― Sun Tzu
12-year old me would be disappointed my eyesight went so bad so fast. 18-year old me would have argued loudly that I’d lost my ideals, but deep down inside, he’d understand that my moral compass stayed pretty much the same.
Both of them would be surprised I landed such a good wife.
My younger self would be like, “Why did I wait so long to figure out who I really was?”
My younger self would be shocked that I have given up my conservative ways (80’s/early 90’s conservative) and have become much more open-minded. A definite departure from how I was raised.
In all, my younger self would either be completely impressed or horrified.
Hell, no! That guy was an idiot!
Seriously, I have completely different ideas about what I want and a more realistic understanding of what will actually make me happy.
ETA: He’d probably think it’s cool that I’m still into metal, though.
Honestly I think the younger me would shrug and say “yeah, I can see that.” And he’d be neither enthused nor horrified. Mildly disappointed in some respects, mildly pleased in a couple of others. But mostly unsurprised.
I’ve led a pretty uneventful life, all in all - few huge successes, but also few huge stresses ;).
ETA: But he might be a little surprised how little my interests/way of looking at the world have changed over the years. Young me did assume the maturation process caused a fundamental change in outlook from kid to adult. Adult me is still a little surprised how untrue that turned out to be.
I sometimes wish I could go back and give advice to my younger self.
But I think younger me was a know-it-all and wouldn’t want to listen.
But…
I think just *seeing *40-year old me, and noticing I’m not a super-famous rockstar scientist, would in itself force me to confront a lot of truths a whole lot sooner.
I’ve got the job my younger self wanted. (Well, one of the jobs.)
I’ve found most of the books my younger self wanted to read but could never track down, and I finally worked out some of those song lyrics I could never decipher as a kid.
I’m married, and me and my wife still tell each other that we love each other regularly.
I’m not skinny, but I wasn’t as a kid, either, and I’m a lot fitter than I was then.
Don’t think my younger self would have much to complain about.
He’d say, "NO WAY!!!"
And he’d be absolutely right.
My younger self would worry far less about the future.
This.
The hardest part for the 4th grade me or the 8th grade me to accept would be the long hair. It’s kind of weird, but at that time / that age, guys growing their hair long was a conformity thing; I caught a lot of nonconformist flack for not growing mine long, and became very rigid and uncompromising in my attitude both towards mindless conformist sheep AND towards the things they were so insistent that everyone conform to, the hair thing prominent among them.
Young me would probably have been kind of dismayed by my personal life. I always thought I’d be pretty when I grew up and that never came to pass. Single, no kids, barely making enough money to get by, and currently disabled (although I do hope that’s only temporary).
Job-wise, though, young me would have been thrilled. I work with animals. Not only that, but to vastly oversimplify it, my job is to write stories about them and generally create art to help them find homes. And if I ever get back on my feet, I’ll go back to the veterinary side of it, as well. Animals, science, art, and philanthropy all in one job.
Depending on what age, though, I’m not sure how young me would have felt about the fact that I’m super not into puppies and kittens. At certain ages, I think I would have understood that it’s (to some degree) altruistic (or it started that way and, having now spent enough time with puppies and kittens, I legitimately prefer adults by a huge margin). But I do think young me would be kind of disappointed that now that I can have any puppy I want, I choose to have middle-aged semiferal cats I can’t even pick up instead. Like learning that you were going to grow up to work in a candy store and also be a health nut.