If you knew then ...

would / should I have married one of the first men who asked? maybe. only one I possibly regret and even then I'm not sure as his children are spectacular

career stuff ... if I'd understood what occupational therapists do 40 years ago, it would have been a good educational direction for me. when I graduated and discovered, should I have quit my job and gone back to school? it was hard to think of giving up income after years of broke broke broke but ...

I would do everything exactly the same. You learn how to live by making mistakes and being yourself. The knowledge you have later on is dearly bought.

Maybe I did what I thought was the right thing to do at that time.
If I regret it now what concequences would that lead to? Regretting things which cannot be changed probably would for me lead to a psychologist.
No, I made up mind, lived the way I thought was right and did my best to be content and have a good time with people being close to me.

1) I would have started saving money instead of only starting recently. Starting a bit earlier makes sooooo much difference and I'd have a nest egg that would help me worry less about the ups and downs I've had. I'm hammering this into my younger brothers and sisters.

2) I wish I didn't learn to properly brush my teeth till my 30s (small details I had wrong but still). I wish I cared more about tooth care earlier but once you approach 30 and experience a dentist a few times you gain strong motivation.

3) I wish I had learned about the negative affects of anxiety earlier. I cultivated stress most of my life, seeking out sensation and enjoying burning the candle at both ends. Now I understand that this is so very physically harmful to me and I'm paying the toll in many physiological ways.

4) I wish I learned earlier to shun my abrasive aspects of my personality. In recent years I have stopped justifying myself by being "technically correct" and instead sought to act in ways that produce results that I want (i.e. not pissing others off or irritating them, even if they might be doing me wrong) and now I can spend a year without losing my temper or letting emotions get stronger than they should. It's made a huge and positive difference in my life.

5) I wish I exercised throughout my early adulthood instead of just being sedentary and getting fatter. Exercise has been one of the most positive things for my mind and body.

6) I wish I had learned that meditation and mindfulness is not spiritual bullshit like I thought it was, and that it is scientific and incredibly helpful. It is difficult for me still and I'm a novice but the benefits are profound.

#5 speaks to me

I was a pretty serious swimmer into my 30's and then quit to do other interesting things

I recently returned to swimming, in part as cross-training for my dance. For weeks after I got back to the pool all I could think about was how much I'd missed swimming. Great for physical fitness but mostly it makes me goddammmmm happy.

I wouldn't have beaten myself up so much for not fitting into the corporate world. I was not tailored of that cloth. I never have been. It was a waste (and a rather stressful one, I might add) to try.

Yeah, I know the whole "I wouldn't do anything differently, because all that made me what I am today" spiel, and there's of course truth to that, but that's really not the point of this thread.

I would definitely leave aside all the antics I did in junior and senior high, trying to entertain or be cool. I would use more of that energy toward my studies - exerting myself to impress with my grades instead of my jokes. That would have given me a better variety of choices for college. That goes for college also - I would have done more than just try to be a party boy - graduate in 4 years and pursue a career wholeheartedly. I feel like I wasted time and potential, just like the teachers used to say in their comments on report cards.

I would have taken a couple of beatings rather than run from a couple of guys who bullied me when I was small. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of making me run.

I would have paid more attention to the nice sweet girls instead of the fast popular ones.

I would value myself and my friendship more, so that I didn't spend any time with people who were interested in nothing and going nowhere.

Given that nobody can actually go back to being themselves at an earlier time, such a "what would you do?" question actually examines how you feel about yourself now.

Yes, it IS a given that no one time travels. So is your contribution to this thread simply to continue stating the obvious, or to just make everyone feel better?

Snood, maybe you could go and pound sand?

I wasn't trying to impress anyone with my grades, but I might have been a tiny bit less focussed on them when I was younger. I was having fun but maybe a bit too much of a keener in school.

LOL backatcha
Hey, if I may ask, what is the significance of your moniker "Your black eyes"?

step around it, eh

works nicely

Getting too old for the fighting...
Although it's true I'll still muster the energy to stir up some **** sometimes

It's the title of a 1985 song by the French rock band Indochine. I have been a big fan for years. They are often described as "Gothic rock". Spot Serge Gainsbourg in the video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uNZWO7Tc04

PS Thanks for being a good sport.

same song? (your link won't work in Canada)

Same song. Maybe one of these links will work...

Apparently Gainsbourg directed the video (I never knew before).

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3ps4d_indochine-tes-yeux-noirs-1985_music

http://mherovid.host/stream/-uNZWO7Tc04

http://www.vidivodo.com/indochine-tes-yeux-noirs-music-video

If I was sixteen again I probably wouldn't burp the entire lyrics of You're The One That I Want to Kathy Jenkins.

(I nearly puked up half way through.)

Here goes...

At 16 I would have considered becoming an emancipated minor. If I decided not to do that, I would have moved out of my home within 5 minutes of becoming 18.
I would have moved away from the NE, as I find it toxic to my general well being.

I would have taken up some type of vocation I found mentally and emotionally satisfying, and after getting some experience at it, open my own business.

I think at some point during that time I would have become an RN only because you can always get some work with that license. It would totally be a backup. I talking doing visits to make enough to get by while pursuing something else.

I don't know that I would have ever married. Not because of lack of love, but because if I had followed the above course, I think so many of my emotional needs would have been met.

Would have bought a home sooner, and paid it off as quickly as I could. It would have a guest house in the back to either use as my business, or to rent out to someone who needed it to run their business out of.

I would have understood work is not the meaning of life, and lived a simple happy life.