If you could have a redo, what would you do differently and why?

I only want to redo the period between my birth and yesterday.

Seriously though, I probably wouldn’t want to redo anything. Sure, I’ve made some really poor decisions and I’m paying for them now. But I’ve also made some great decisions. Who knows what would have happened if I had done __ instead of ___.

@tom_g How and why?

I would have taken a couple of years after high school to travel, grow up and then start college at, say, twenty. Then I might have taken it more seriously and gone into what I wanted (Paleontology) and not what I thought would get me a decent paying job (Construction Science).

I would redo my college experience to be more studious and less crazy!

I would have chosen to go to university immediately after high school (instead of waiting several years to start). It would have changed my life significantly for the better.

Also, I would have flossed more.

I have no complaints. So far, life has been fun and exciting. No two days are ever alike in a police car.

I would like to redo my present.

It’s gone. For better or for worse it’s gone.

@eiram In what way? Why?

Have rich parents, lol.

I would have gone to the dentist 6 months ago, instead of waiting to long, and now having to pay to get all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed surgically.

Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda..

Nothing.

I have done so many incomprehensible things. I’ve had to pay for the tearshed I’ve caused. The loss now is mine.
If I could redo things, I think I would go back to the first time I cut myself. It’s been a long hard struggle, for the last four years. And it’s still tempting every day. I wouldn’t choose to go through this again.

the year that I started hanging out with the ‘cool’ croud that smoked cigarettes and drunk alcohol… at a very young age.

@dappled_leaves It appears we arrived where we are by not doing what the other did yet here we are.

I’d erase the time when I was running the 400 meters race for the school at county level.
I developed what can only be described as “shotgun diarrhea” as I approached the back straight.
Yeah that’s right, I ran like shit off a stick, quite literally.

Spend more time living in the moment with my children when they were young children. Taking more photos. Playing more games. Reading more stories. Singing more songs. Doing silly dances. Just cuddling and loving them up lots.

The things that I wish would change, are the things I never had control over.

I’d like the ability to change something, just some tiny event in my life. Preferably as insignificant as possible, just to see how it pans out. Wouldn’t necessarily want to live that out though.

I don’t know. The circumstances of which I met my husband were tragic at the time, but if things were different, I probably would have never met him. So nothing differently.

Hindsight is 20/20, right?

If I had known what I know now, I would have had a baby as soon as I got married and not wait until it was too late to have one without an egg donor.

While there are many things I would have liked to go smoother, better, and be less painful most of them I had no control over as Mariah says. So it’s pointless to imagine how things could have been done differently because I had no control.

And I wonder, if I could, should I? I think we grow the most through painful experiences. It becomes our own special root and bone. It helps to make us who we are and I do feel like I experience life more deeply and empathize with people better because of the suffering I have been through.

I’m not sure if I totally buy into the whole tortured,starving artist myth but I do think that most pain can be put to a use to communicate something meaningful to others by creating art. Someday, if I have enough time to devote to it, I would like to try to do that through poetry or painting. But even if I don’t, I feel that all of the experiences I have had enriches me.

I don’t have a lot of regrets for decisions I made. Most of my regrets are that I should have taken more chances and not procrastinated as much. I wish I could have tossed my cares to the wind and live live to the fullest. Damn, all those damn cliches. But all in all I am happy. I always tried to do my best. I can be very hard on myself but it’s for a purpose. It’s like tough love,lol. Once in a while I let myself feel happy for how far I’ve come.

If I could stop the exact time that I decided to become an alcoholic, I’d stop that. Not that my mentality agrees with this, but my physical health sure as fuck does. Haven’t drank for a bit, but I didn’t expect it to stop like magic. Still, if I knew how and when it all happened, I’d go back then and stop it, so I wouldn’t have to make exceptions because alcohol withdrawal is freakin me the fuck out.

How I would redo it I denno, but I do think that if I did, I’d be a happier person now, or at least a healthier one.

Also that one time my bank card got cloned and the bank accidentally doubled back my lost amount after the investigation got done and I got refunded; I wouldn’t have said anything. Apparently if they fuck up, they can’t do anything, even if they find out you didn’t tell them a mistake was made and you kept the extra cash for yourself. I could have enjoyed nearly 3500 dollars instead of that half that I had originally lost. but I’m also honest; well fuck me Also in case I’m wrong about that…I enjoy freedom. Federal prison sounds like crap.

…still though.

Wundayatta Would the do-over be a magic do-over??? Would I be omnipotent and be able to control how things happened? Could I reverse and advance time as I pleased so certain events happened simultaneously instead of years apart or things that happened after happened before instead??? Would there be more Orange Trees????
If so, I want to change my answer.

@Earthgirl I’m afraid I can’t answer the question. The “redo” is not my idea. The person whose idea it is didn’t answer the question. So I don’t know what they meant.

I suppose you can make “redo” mean anything you want. So go for it! Let the orange trees bloom into an orchard. Let there be as many alternate realities as you can imagine. Just remember, the farther they diverge, the less you (as we know you) there is left.

Amor fati!

But if I had to redo something, I suppose I would go back to my college years. There are a lot of classes I wish I had taken now, and a lot of classes that have turned out to be useless to my chosen path. A few swaps would save me a lot of time in the present.

@wundayatta I’m not even sure in what way. Am currently trying to figure it out by changes small things in my everyday life. If we’re not happy in the moment, we’re never happy. Doesn’t mean we can’t ever be happy.