Would you go back and do things differently?

[Avatar tag: shipping 299]

I was at the station last weekend and we had some downtime. I'm not exactly sure how we got to this topic but my partner asked if you had the opportunity to back in time and try your hand at life again, would you do it? You would go back to the first day of high school but retain the memory you have at this moment. Would you go back and see if things turn out different? Or are you happy how things turned out, or at least accepted your fate and have moved on. At first I said yes. Like everyone else, I've made some mistakes that I wish I could go back and correct. I would get help for my ADHD instead of trying to go it alone. I would be able to stay focused long enough to do well in school. I scored 29 on the ACT the first time around, maybe I could score higher and go to some fancy college. I was contacted by West Point in high school, maybe I would look into that more instead of dismissing it. And I would definitely treat some people differently, both better and worse.

 

However as the night wore on, I began to think about it more. Would I really do anything different? I had a great group of friends, most of which I still talk to. My best friend from high school is still my best friend today. I didn't particularly like going to school anyway. I hated my classes, but most of them were required to graduate so that couldn't be changed. I might have said something to girls I didn't the first time, and stayed away from some I did. But that could drastically change things too. I was single when I graduated, so I went to a college far from my home. If I was dating someone, would I have even gone? Going to that college, and subsequently dropping out, made me realize I was heading down the wrong career path. And the college near home I transferred to after that, and again dropped out of, made me realize that maybe traditional college isn't right for me either. Maybe I would have gone to some fancy school and probably dropped out of it, costing me way more than the $4,000 I owe now. Maybe I wouldn't drop out and I would graduate, but would I be happy with that career choice as I am now? The only thing I can honestly say I would definitely change would be that I would have opened my mind to MLP sooner. But I graduated before FiM started, so it wouldn't have done me any good then.

 

After thinking long and hard about it, I would say no. I would not go back and try again. Sure I've made a lot of mistakes, but those mistakes have shaped my life into a one I can honestly say I enjoy. I have good friends and I'm happy with my career choice. What more can you ask from life? (Wow, this went on waaay longer than I planned. Sorry bout that.)

 

tl;dr: No, I would not.

 

So, the question still stands... If you had the chance to go back and do things differently, would you do it?

 

EDIT: You can go back as far as you want. From the day you were born to this morning, and any time in between. High school was just the time we chose.

Edited June 27, 2013 by FMStorm

[repsol rave 2,963]

yes yes yes so much yes.

if i could go back a certain amount of time and actually do things diffrently i would grab that chance with both hands and my left foot!

i personally have a pretty good reason for this in my opinion, if i could go back i could save my best friend by talking sense into him. maybe he wouldn't have comitted suicide then :/

Edited June 27, 2013 by repsol rave

[Scootalove 10,689]

Yeah, I would definitely go back and change my decision on what middle school I would go to. Since, I didn't really enjoy my three years in middle school.

[D1SC0RD 987]

I am a highschool student right now so it's a bit hard for me to answer your question.

 

However, I tend to go about my days wondering "Am I going to regret this when I am older?". This is the only time I will be 17, yet I spend my time avoiding friends and lounging around in my room. I wonder if I'll regret cutting myself off from my old friends, and I think I already regret that decision. If I go to prom, I know a few guys who would take me as a date, but other then that I would have no one to spend the night with. I wonder if I'll regret never attending a highschool party and staying away from the teams and such.

 

A lot of adults I know look back on high school days as the best or worst days of their lives. Either way, it's a memory for them. Honestly, I have nothing going on to remember this point in my life. It's pretty void. I think I am wasting my youth. For now I am happy, but I think in the future I will have regret over these days.

 

I wouldn't change it though because it'd be stupid of me to change my current state of happiness just so I can look back on myself in the future and smile.

[Gigapony 650]

I most certainly would. I know it's not good to dwell on the past too much, but I've always thought about how much better my life could've been had I known the consequences of my previous actions ahead of time. There's so many decisions I would've changed and I think it would've made me a better person than the one I am now. But alas, there's no changing the past.

[Pinkie D Pie 1,036]

First off no. I'm only 16, and although I have made some pretty stupid decisions, I am quite happy with how my life is going. That's not to say I'm proud of everything I have done. Sure there's those things I look back on now and realize how stupid it was to do them, but I don't regret it.

 

The few things I would change, when I think about them, I realize that changing them would change who I am.

 

The first thing I even think about changing happened just my past school year. I was in the tenth grade, taking a class I didn't even need, and I nearly failed it for not studying or doing my work. It was stupidity on my part and addiction to playing video games that caused this however. If I hadn't nearly failed that class, I would never have gotten grounded and been forced away from video games.

 

That's really the only major things I might change. Sure there might be those small things like when I went on a cruise ship and found really awesome girls and not actually got there numbers, or staying friends with certain people though middle school and into high school. I realize however that even if I did change those things, it might change who I am today, or change who I might become in the future.

 

The short answer is this, even though I'm only 16, I wouldn't change one moment of my life.

[Envy 6,206]

Of course I would! I'd give almost anything to be able to go back in time and change this... I feel as if I ended up in an entirely different life after high school. I'd love to go back and take much better care of myself so I wouldn't end up with this future...

[Zygen 6,066]

Eh, i'm still in highschool, so idk. if I can only go as far back as my first year of highschool then thats the beginning of last year.

 

Heck I'm not sure i'd go back to change anything last year, or even a long time ago really. I just feel that even though I could've tried to fix things and have them go better, i'd also lose some things that only happened due to me messing up some things.

 

So i'd be making parts of my life better in exchange for losing out on some things.

 

Idk, I might go back to my 8th grade year coming there from being homeschooled, but mostly because I kinda think I might want to act less akward when I first got there by having more knowledge about social interaction then I did.

 

Then again I might lose out on things that happened due to that, so idk.

 

I think my life has been ok so far, nothing has really been bad enough I think that I need to go back and change it honestly. Even some of the bad lead to the good things slipping into my life.

 

So, I don't think i'd go back in time and change anything at the moment.

[Lightning Shade 783]

No because all bad things that have occurred in my life were unavoidable things.

Everything else in my life is good so far so I would have no point in changing things......

[Mio Akiyama 145]

Of course I would. All the things I could've done differently, or never did at all, big or small, insignificant or important, I would've went back starting with the first thing I regret and continue to live life how I wanted it to be. I'm only 16, and I still hate how my life is turning out. So many things I could've done, now gone forever. Small things I could've changed to benefit my future. Just the thought of it encourages me to punch a wall or something

[Clockwork Chaos 219]

No. I wouldn't go back, i've worked too hard to be the man i am today.

 

That's not to say i've not made some enormous mistakes, who hasn't, right?

but... every mistake i've ever made has helped to make me 'me'

 

I made a very conscious decision when i was 14 to never lead a 'what if' life. always say yes to your friend's insane ideas, always tell 'that girl' how much she means to you... And i would heavily advise you all do the same

[Lume WMj 228]

Well... I most likely wouldn't.

 

As much as I regret some decisions I made throughout my life, I'm one in favor of the theory that says: Everything, good and bad, happens in our lives for a reason. Going back and changing the past would feel kind of like trying to run away from my mistakes and being against destiny itself... Who knows, maybe my current life is what I truly deserve at this point.

 

So I wouldn't try to change a thing~ Life molded me this way, and who the hell am I to complain about it?~

[Retro*Derpy 3,197]

Honestly, I would go back, but not just because of the mistakes I've made.

 

I had a decision to either live with my father or my mother to go through most of life, including high-school. Out of curiosity, I wonder what would've happened if I decided to live with my other parent instead. It would've changed my fate completely. 

 

Either way, if I retain my memory I could just breeze by High-School, get great grades, and be set for college. That in itself sounds good.

[Avatar tag: shipping 299]

I completely forgot about the younger bronies out there. Sorry about that, I didn't mean to leave you out. Don't feel bound to the whole high school thing. You can go back further if you want. Hell, you can go back to the day you were born. The flip side is also true. Those of you that are my age or older can go back to the beginning of college if high school was good.

 

My partner first said that you would go back and have no memory of going through it before. However, that's a terrible question. If you didn't know how your past decisions affected your life, why would anything change? There was a reason you did the things you did. Without hindsight, those reasons would still be the same. So we changed it to something that is actually debatable.

[Thunderchild 875]

Yes-for one main reason:

 

Ever since I can remember I wanted to be a vet. It started with reading James Herriot books when I was a kid-seemed like a great life.

I started by working on farms, then went to Agricultural college-the first step. I was then accepted for my HND course-which would have been followed by the MRCVS course to get your veterinary qual. The whole process would have taken about 7 years, and because it was Britain in the '80s, it would all have been free.

 

In the time between getting my NCA and going to the HND college course I got a job with a building firm and started making serious money for the first time in my life. I never went back to college and became a vet. I'm now 43 years old and have been working jobs that I don't like from the time I was 20.

 

All you high school folks-take my advice. Don't cheap out on your dreams. Make the effort and stay the course. It might not turn out like you expect-but at least you won't spend your life wondering.

 

Of all the stupid mistakes I've made in life, it's the only one I really regret.

[Thrashy 2,800]

Yes and no. For the most part, I feel that the path I have chosen in life is the one I was always meant to walk. All things considered, I'm fairly content with how things have turned out, despite the many, many pitfalls and missed opportunities along the way. If there's any course of action that I could retake that would seriously jeopardize some of the important things in my life as is - my friends, my dreams, ponies - you can bet I'd avoid it like the plague.

 

But what I would change is my temperament. Back in high school, I was a passive nobody. My head was always in the clouds, I took shit from people that I would never take nowadays (not without putting someone's head through a wall), and my potential was wasted. Going back with my current attitude, I'd have gotten involved with something, anything. I'd have stood up to those who tried to put me down time and time again, and I'd have tried my damnedest to excel in my classes so that I might have something a little better awaiting me than a community college.

 

Most importantly, I would've resolved to come out of my shell and formulate friendships beyond the mere 3 or 4 friends I had back then...don't get me wrong, those are the closest friendships I've ever had, and they'll always be my best bros till the day I die. But dammit, if only I'd been more bold back then. If I had, I'd have jumped on the opportunity to date this really cute girl who was totally into me during my freshman year, only I was too stupid / blind to see it at the time. Oh, Sonia...truly you are the one that got away. The perfect intellectual and artistic type girl for me. If only, if only...

 

Dammit, now I'm all wistful. Thanks a lot, OP.

[Nobody Special 210]

I might, I dropped most of my, what I thought were, friends because they treated me different, just because I watch MLP. I might have waited to the end of summer, cause right now I stuck in my house, most every day. It sucks, and I mean IT REALLY SUCKS!

[fimdash 1,196]

Nah, I wouldn't. There are moments from my past that I wish never happened, but some of those moments have also taught me some valuable lessons. The things that we've been through shape us into who we are today, and to go back would be to destroy parts of ourselves. Sure, we've all made mistakes; it's inevitable. However, we have learned from these mistakes and have become wiser and smarter as a result. Also, the things you regret were decisions you made in the moment. If you could go back without knowing the situation's outcome, it's very likely that you would make the same decision again.

[TasteTheRainboom 82]

Well i did make a lot of mistakes in my life, and my biggest regrets would be the people i choose to trust. And how i handled some things, mainly my school. While i don't have huge regrets (well huge compared to other peoples problems, in my head i do see them as huge regrets) i would still like to go back and change a few things, maybe i wouldn't have wound up depresses if i changed all my mistakes :/ but eh... Since i know i will never be able to do that i'll just have to live on and think about the future more

[~Master~ Button Mash 2,307]

If I could go back, there's a number of changes I would make:

- I wouldn't have let myself get as out of shape as I did, a mistake I'm trying to correct now.

- I would have forced myself to have been more social in school.

- I would have put more of a focus on developing art or music skills.

- I would've played a sport.

 

Yeah...

[lincolnshirepony 527]

See, I'd be scared to change some things, because who knows how that could affect the present? I was socially clueless and miserable freshman year because I had a ton of trouble making new friends, and I could erase some painful experiences through changing the past, buuut that could completely change my current relationships. How would that have affected where I ended up? I had to go through that to learn about people. I'm certainly not done with learning about people. Would what I know now really be that helpful when I still have a lot to learn?

I suppose I could try to go back and get myself into better habits, but I'm not done working on that either.

 

Though I would never in a thousand years want to go back and have to take any of my high school classes over again (except for maybe band). The workload at my school was insane and so mentally exhausting. The lack of sleep was terrible and the stress didn't do me any favors. I don't know if I regret any of the classes I took, but I don't ever want to go through that again. Maybe I would go back to junior year and study harder for that Pre-Calc test I tanked, or go back to senior year and not bother applying to the universities that rejected me, but that's about it. Even those two don't have much consequence on my life anymore. So I guess I don't want to go back. Reliving the past would be too stressful when everything is going okay for me right now.

Edited June 28, 2013 by lincolnshirepony

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

There are a lot of things that I would like to change about my life and a lot of mistakes I wish I hadn't made, but I'd be hesitant to undo anything. There's been a lot of good that has come out of my life as well, and some of it because of things that I'd never do now. I think that I'm better off trying to learn from all of my regrets, to move forward doing my best to not make any more of them, and appreciate the blessings that have come to me.

[Symph 103]

I was at the station last weekend and we had some downtime. I'm not exactly sure how we got to this topic but my partner asked if you had the opportunity to back in time and try your hand at life again, would you do it? You would go back to the first day of high school but retain the memory you have at this moment. Would you go back and see if things turn out different? Or are you happy how things turned out, or at least accepted your fate and have moved on. At first I said yes. Like everyone else, I've made some mistakes that I wish I could go back and correct. I would get help for my ADHD instead of trying to go it alone. I would be able to stay focused long enough to do well in school. I scored 29 on the ACT the first time around, maybe I could score higher and go to some fancy college. I was contacted by West Point in high school, maybe I would look into that more instead of dismissing it. And I would definitely treat some people differently, both better and worse.

 

However as the night wore on, I began to think about it more. Would I really do anything different? I had a great group of friends, most of which I still talk to. My best friend from high school is still my best friend today. I didn't particularly like going to school anyway. I hated my classes, but most of them were required to graduate so that couldn't be changed. I might have said something to girls I didn't the first time, and stayed away from some I did. But that could drastically change things too. I was single when I graduated, so I went to a college far from my home. If I was dating someone, would I have even gone? Going to that college, and subsequently dropping out, made me realize I was heading down the wrong career path. And the college near home I transferred to after that, and again dropped out of, made me realize that maybe traditional college isn't right for me either. Maybe I would have gone to some fancy school and probably dropped out of it, costing me way more than the $4,000 I owe now. Maybe I wouldn't drop out and I would graduate, but would I be happy with that career choice as I am now? The only thing I can honestly say I would definitely change would be that I would have opened my mind to MLP sooner. But I graduated before FiM started, so it wouldn't have done me any good then.

 

After thinking long and hard about it, I would say no. I would not go back and try again. Sure I've made a lot of mistakes, but those mistakes have shaped my life into a one I can honestly say I enjoy. I have good friends and I'm happy with my career choice. What more can you ask from life? (Wow, this went on waaay longer than I planned. Sorry bout that.)

 

tl;dr: No, I would not.

 

So, the question still stands... If you had the chance to go back and do things differently, would you do it?

 

EDIT: You can go back as far as you want. From the day you were born to this morning, and any time in between. High school was just the time we chose.

I would SOOOOOOOOOOO go back in time.  I spent most of my highschool days afraid to talk to people and lost in my own little fantasy world.  But now I'm soooooo confident and easy to talk to and outgoing, I'd love to redo highschool with an outgoing mentality.  After highschool I got addicted to alcohol and some other substances, went to parties and threw years down the drain, I hate all that time wasted.  I made music for years but never put it on youtube, and I don't know how many of you are aware but youtube is NOT the place it used to be it's 100 times harder to get noticed and seen and go viral than it used to be.  I had a beautiful girlfriend but I was controlling with her and let alot of petty things I would NEVER care about now cause me to try and change her and basically be a jerk until she couldn't take it and left me.  I became addicted to cigarrettes at age 12.  I also wasted 4 years of my life working on music with a producer who ended up screwing me over and wasting all my time and money in the end.  I sunk tons of money into his services only to wind up with nothing to show for it, and also because of my drug/alcohol addiction I lost many MANY jobs.  My work record is CRAP now.  

 

If I could go back to 12, never touch that cigarette, hang out with a better group of friends since I'd have the balls to say hi to the "popular kids", put myself on youtube the YEAR the website came out, not only that but with the knowledge I have of video making now and music making so that I'd never have that awkward "breaking into it" phase.  Treat that girl with the decency and respect she deserved, never work with that producer but follow my own path, never touch a sip of alcohol or any drugs so I'd never have wasted all that time and money or gone to rehab.  If I could do all those things???  Dude I'd be willing to sacrifice a LOT for that chance.  

 

Ok now thinking about this is making me sad so... post over lol  

[Spring Storm 276]

I was abused by my ex when he and I dated, so I would definitely avoid dating him at the very least. I might not even date men at all, now that I know I'm only happy with women. Shoot, I could avoid dating all together until 2011, when I would meet my soulmate <3

 

And now for an embarrassing story: I had mental problems out the wazoo in high school. I was reeeeally OCD about my eyebrows. I'd pluck them, then if I'd plucked too much, I would use pencil over them. Well the penciling became too much of a habit, and I messed up my right eyebrow. The hair won't grow on about half of it, and it eventually developed into a lot of hard lumps under the skin. The doctor said they were likely the result of sweat built up in a way it shouldn't have been, and that the lumps were likely benign cysts. I just had the lumps removed yesterday, and the healing process isn't really what I would call fun. So if I could go back in time, I wouldn't mess my eyebrow up in the first place.

 

I also messed up senior year. I could have had great grades all through high school, but the medications I got on for depression and ADD just made my problems worse. It doesn't super matter, because we don't have the money for me to go to a prestigious college anyway, but I still would have done better senior year of high school, because I can

 

But other than those things, there isn't really much else I would change. I live with my mom who is the most wonderful person ever, who accepts both my lesbianism and my pony obsession. I have the best girlfriend ever, who liked ponies long before I met her. So yeah, everything is very wonderful, but I'd still make those changes if I could.

[~StatesTheOblivious~ 1,795]

well, since I don't know how exactly different choices would have affected things, I tink I would go for one thing in my childhood. One answer that I, in retrospective, regret a lo, because I think if my word really had weight in that, my life would be a lot different.

 

I was four years old. Kindergarten, not that many friends, but I didn't really care about being alone because I wasn't lonesome. I had my parents. And then one day, my mother asked me if I would like to have a Little brother or sister. I know, there is the possibility that my answer didn't affect my parents choice at all, but still...

 

I said no. I disliked the idea. And now when I see how much more fulfilled some peoples lifes are who I know that have siblings, I often think "What a stupid opinion I had".