A neighbor brought this up the other night. he said "boy oh boy! if I could time travel back to when I was 25 years old, and give myself some advice, I would be in a much better place." That got me to thinking. (dangerous with a fever) and I was wondering. If you could time travel back to a younger period in your life with some special bit of knowledge, what year would you chose, and what advice?


Me? I would time travel back to the time I was 16. I would comfort myself for being in such a stressful situation, and then would advise myself that marrying that lunkhead and using him as a way to get out of the back woods would cost me. I would give myself advice on patience, and the knowledge that the nightmare would soon be over, with or without a man to pull me from the woods.

When you are 16, and living a bad life, 2 years till you are 18, and can go, seems like an eternity. I wasnt preggers,(lunkhead kept trying though) I had money I was stashing away,(which lunkhead stole) and I had been offered a full boat scholarship that I gave up to run away with him.(lunkhead thought I was too dumb to go to college) I wanted out so badly, and was willing to "change" his drinking ways, and be tolerant of his "quick temper" in order to gain what I believed would be my freedom.(lunkhead believed he saved me, and I owed him)

I have other times in my life that I would have loved to have gotten a chance to travel back to. Give myself financial advice, or courage, or cheerleading, or encouragement to just listen to my gut, but I think had I returned to this pivitol moment in my life, things would have been so different.

Does anyone else play that game? or am I just feverish?

I never would have gotten married - ever. Qualifying that, I have had a good marriage and I did not marry really young. I just am not as tolerant as I get older. Who is. I do have a mind of my own and always have had. I've always taken care of myself. CMT symptoms came much, much later in my life. If I had had CMT symptoms younger, I "maybe" would not have had children as there is a 50/50% chance that each child will have inherited it. And I do believe one or two have. And it's later in life for them but not as later in life as I have. Time will tell and who knows how it will be for them if that is so as CMT varies greatly even within the same family. But that is all water under the bridge.

And if you want to be with someone, you do not have to get married and you really do not have to get married to have children either. But all that was expected way back then or else they would think you were not "normal" shall we say - whatever that is. I married because I was, and still am, in love. And I have a good man. And I have good children as well. No complaints on any of that.

I probably should have joined the Army which I had thought about. But who knows how any of that would have turned out. It's all the road not taken.

Mine is pretty simple-

I would tell myself to ride my wonderful palomino as often as I could cause it will be very hard to replace him when he is gone.

RIP Filbert Albert Delbert aka Shannon
1967 - 1991

In spite of its pitfalls, I'm pretty happy with my life. I would, however, tell my 13-yr.-old self to "listen to Mom, your trumpet playing sucks and is no real reason to skip getting the braces on your teeth!"

Oh, and to try snowboarding before it's too late!

For most of my adult life I thought about how I would have changed some parts of my life.

Now that I am older (or just plain old) I realize that my life has played out for the best for me and any changes I might have made would not have helped but instead hindered me.

For example, I used to think that I should have never had kids because it was so difficult raising them after being diagnosed with MS when they were only 3 and 6 months old. Today my sons are my best friends and now that their dad has passed away I would be lost without their attention and help.

My life is about as good as it could have gotten whether I made some changes or not, so I have no regrets.


gmi

Don't waste time. You may find yourself in a situation where you can't do today what was child's play yesterday.

A dream deferred may be a dream lost.

I'd tell myself to not be scared of all the stuff I wanted to try (like mountain climbing, dirt bikes, race car driving, etc), and go for it!

This is an interesting question.

I have always been a careful person, so even with my sad childhood, I sort of always hoped it would turn out in the end, and it did.

Then I had a premature baby... 3 lb 14oz. He was so frail looking, and fragile (but he really was not).
I felt so lost looking at him in his isolette. Then it turned out he was effectively blind as well. (but he could get glasses to correct some of it--which was new technology at that time). So at one point I did not see an easy future for him. I can remember thinking --how am I going to cope with this?

Now I have a very healthy successful son, who is his own person, just buying his first home, smart and creative. He still has some challenging eye problems, but he deals with it.
If I could have seen ahead I'd not have worried so much, hurt so much for him.

A wise nurse saw me crying in the nursery one day... I had a long C-section incision, and was stressed physically to the max. I couldn't even hold him for a week...he had scalp IVs...so she opened the isolette and let me hold him for the first time several days after he was born. She comforted me, and encouraged me to look forward to a future for him, when I was really down. I'll never forget that gift she gave me. (she was the only one, BTW who helped me with this).

I'd go back and tell myself, it will work out as it must.

Oh I only wished I accepted the fact that just because a guy plays in a band and is smokin hot does not make him a decent human being.

To my young self and all other young women: Don't sell yourself short! If someone isn't respectful and kind kick him to the curb sooner rather than later.

I'd go back to when I was 13 or so (1971) and, after smacking the tar out of myself, I'd explain just what open heart surgery feels like and that smoking cigarettes for 30 plus years equals just that - open heart surgery. Ya dumb dingaling!

I only get to go back once??? Can I take a copy of the Wall Street Journal back with me to give to stupid me? Um... maybe a flash drive too... Even stupid me could beat Bill Gates if I had 16 gigs in a little ole' flash drive...

Tom