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[jay-ell]

I've often wondered what I'd have done differently if I could have a "do-over."  You know, start over from 16 with all the knowledge and wisdom I now posses. 

I would probably try to make more bad decisions.  I mean, I really didn't make very many poor choices in high school or college (after a particularly ill-advised freshman year in HS) so I think I would probably benefit from having the opportunity to take more risks while I was still young enough not to have to really worry too much about the consequences. 

It all boils down to the fact that I took everything far too seriously as a kid.  Youth is wasted on the young. 

[KeithHernandez]

I don't think I am old enough for this yet, but, maybe, not smoke cigarettes.  I love them, but also they are bad. 

I really don't have any huge regrets or anything though.  I have had a lot of fun, been somewhat productive and stayed relatively safe and out of trouble.

[theinevitable]

not date the girl I dated from 16-almost 18. She was a horrible person, and a horrible girlfriend. I didn't realize the extent of this until I had dated other girls who were not mean, ungrateful, unfaithful, etc. All of my friends hated her and I didn't get why. At this point, I hate her less for the cheating-on-me and that bullshit than for the constant criticism and taking-me-for-granted. "if you really loved me, you'd (whatever)" is not a good sentence to hear, especially as often as I heard it from her.

[wombat]

I don't see any point in being 16 again. Maybe 20, once I was making life decisions that would have longer consequences. But you know, I'm not sure if I'd be able to do it over all that differently anyway.  Even with whatever wisdom I have now, I'd still be basically the same person with the same fears and anxieties and talents or lacks thereof. I'm not sure if I'd be able to take more risks, even knowing that I'd eventually look back wishing I'd taken a few more risks.

[Doc]

I'm only 22 so I don't think I've seen enough to decide to change anything. I might try to slow myself down a little, last couple of years of high school it was kind of all looking forward to uni and not stopping to smell the roses enough, kind of losing focus and I think being a jerk for a while (this persisted into about third year of uni) so maybe I'd try to make sure I didn't do that.
Possibly get my license earlier too but I still don't use that all often.

Although now that I'm thinking: there was this one girl I crushed on all through high school and we hooked up (gloriously briefly) about two months before christmas when I was 17. I don't regret it being so short because it was just a high school thing but I wouldn't mind reliving those few weeks again, they were good times.

[littlefallsmets]

Oh man, the only reason I would ever wanna be 16 again would be to get to live 12 more years.

There is no other reason to be 16 again. I was so ridiculously bad at being 16 and I am reasonably certain that knowing what I know now would only make it... like... fifteen times worse.

How would one possibly do a tenth-grade English paper knowing the grim meat-hook realities of adulthood that lie in wait ahead and how that paper could never have anything to do, either way, with that reality?

I don't need a brand new youth, at all, I just need to be better at being an adult.

[Arachno-capitalist]

Doc is only 22?

I would be 16 again in second. I was getting laid all the time, I hadn't a care in the world, and I had a really fast car. Its been downhill since then. But I guess if I did it over again Id actually spend less time getting laid and more time thinking about college instead of leaving it up to a coin toss and the promise of a bigger car if I went where my mom wanted - ultimately leading me on some ridiculous academic odyssey for 3 years until I am, just today, finally happy where I am.

[robot_god]

Damn, if I was 16 again, I would destroy the whole world with wildness, everyday.

I would act like Michael Jackson in his music videos.

[jay-ell]

I don't see any point in being 16 again. Maybe 20, once I was making life decisions that would have longer consequences.

Yeah, but if you got to start over from sixteen and live the rest of your life from that point on with all your current knowledge and wisdom, at least starting at 16 would give you a running start at 20.  I mean, that's what I'd want from it.  The chance to go back far enough not to arrive a few weeks too late to change something important.  But then, I watch too much Quantum Leap. 

One more thing I'd do if I were teleported back into my teenage body: be nicer to my Mom. 

She's a really great mom, and I didn't appreciate that until I was about twenty. 

[side_show]

That's a tough one. I am happy with how things are, so I wouldn't want to do it.  I was just talking about this with the SO tonight after we booked our trip to Cuba:  When I was young, and I imagined the future me, I never dreamed things would be this good.  Granted I came from a pretty dark place, but I didn't imagine that I'd know the joys I do now.  I'd hoped for "better," but I hadn't hoped for "great."  I guess if there was some way to know that I would still end up right back here, I'd do things differently.  I suppose, if I could do it all again knowing what I do now, maybe I'd have been more loving to others.  I would probably not do half the stuff I did before I knew better - so, uh boring, I guess?  Without all that risk taking, would I have dared to do what it took to get me here?  If it's all about disregard and trying all the things I didn't try, I'd probably take a lot less shit, move out sooner, have more sex, maybe move somewhere far away and test out the "leave it all behind/whole new life" experience... I am, right now, just a little better off than 16 year old me hoped adult me would be.  Sixteen year old me would be pretty happy with adult me - 16 year old me would think adult me is pretty damn cool.

[linnea]

Oh fuck-all, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I'd buckle down, not party so much, and study my ass off, since i went to an incredible school with a great AP program and basically pissed away all the opportunities that I had. I would have the discipline to save my money to take the AP exams. I'd bust my ass to get scholarships and eventually to go to medical school, since I'd be doing emergency medicine right this very second if I could.

If I could go back, I would have also gotten help sooner for my depression so I wouldn't have wasted so much of my life on it. And I would have said "fuck you" to the master of architecture program that I had to eventually drop out of when I was 22 and spared myself a lotta pain and anguish. I would also have had the courage to fire the crap dude and not have wasted so much time on him.

It's a nice thought, but it's basically impossible. It does give a nice boost to encourage me to work harder towards my current goals, though.

[Pedro Picasso]

If I went back to 16, I would have all sorts of advanced knowledge of world events and technologies.  That would then be the focus of my life.  I would be ruling the world by my thirties.  If I were suddenly 16 here and now, that would be scarier.  The world would be still be this big, but I'd be that small.  I did pretty well as a teenager.  I think I've lost the pieces of myself that made me good at it.  Maybe I would get that back with the added hormones.  Maybe that's all it was.  Anyway, I make a pretty kick-ass adult now, so I'll stick with that.

Also, my kid rules.

[V-Adore]

If I could be 16 again... I don't really know. Part of me says that it'd probably be best not to hook up with the much older weirdo who eventually became the Gentleman Caller, but then I'd miss some pretty awesome years of love and make-outs before I grew up and shit started hitting the fan. I'd probably try to be a little more proactive and career-focused. I probably wouldn't double-major in college again.

[Golfhaus]

I have no idea. On the one hand, I would've done the stuff (like weed) that everyone else did instead of thinking I was better than all of it. Maybe I would have worked harder in school so I could have gotten into a better college. But I doubt I would have had any more self-confidence, because I'm 30 now and still don't really have a lot of self-confidence.

[Lister]

If I had the chance to be 16 again, I would buy Netscape and then sell it after the AOL merger.  I also would probably have gotten out of Intel around that time, too.

On the one hand I'd like to think that I could have gotten to where I am in my career a lot sooner if I'd come out here right after college, but on the other hand I would have missed out on three great friends, a ton of great experiences, and love... plus I don't think I'd be as good at my job now if I had skipped all those things.

So eh.

The stock thing, definitely though.  Oh hell yes.  Jumping before the crash, buying a house when the last bubble burst... oh hell yes.

Burst, this bubble, burst!