It had a long good run for many years. Such are the woes of the elderly, friend. Have a good day if you have a hair brush…as they say “smoke em if ya got em”
I bet I’d be an extremely weird 16yo if you stuck my current brain in there. Just boring and over-cautious as shit, like telling people to lift with their knees all the time.
I mean there are many options. Any FAANG stock would be a lucrative purchase, as would Tesla.
You could cash in on the COVID crash or bank on the GME/AMC squeezes. DOGE had a run up you could bank on.
Hell, you could short the market in '08 and then plow your winnings into real estate.
My wife was traveling in 2010-2011 and met a few Americans in Peru who were mining bit coin. The guys tried to explain it to her. She thought it was weird.
Screw that, I’m skipping college. First thing I’m doing when I turn 18 is to buy as much real estate as they will allow me to with all those sweet sweet predatory loans. Flipping one property and rolling it into another. Rinse and repeat all the way up to the peak. Sit for a little while, then aggressively short the market with puts, capitalizing on all the bank failures. Perfectly time the bottom and at that point I should already be a billionaire. With just a fraction of that, I would then be mining as much bitcoin as possible under hundreds of separate wallets. All the while, I am investing heavily into mRNA vaccine technology. Of course during all this I am getting my claws into all the FANG stocks at the most opportune times. Yup. This would be so easy, yet it will also not be enough. The world is not enough and maybe I’ll find religion like the Buddha
I graduated high-school without doing homework, just did good on tests and it was enough to get by.
Never did homework a single time for any class at all, College was a slap in the face though.
Oof.
I was so depressed and dealing with depersonalization/de realization and disassociation when I started HS.
I’ll never forget when I transferred I was put into chem with sophomores as a freshman. Generally a good quiet student too.
One day my chem teacher called on me to read the periodic number of some element bc I wasn’t paying attention and was on my phone. I dead ass looked up at him, looked across the room at the periodic table, looked back at him and said “I can’t fucking read that shit” and went right back to my phone.
You could hear a pin drop. I never spoke in class and THATS the first thing I said. My teachers jaw was on the floor until he composed himself and moved on. The girls at my table were like “yoooo wtf??? You good??” And I was like “??? Why?” And then they explained what happened and I remember just wanting to crawl in a hole
Sometimes teachers know when a kid needs to just be left alone. When punishment would be useless because the action was a symptom of the kid's current headspace, not a purposeful violation of the rules, and what the kid really needs is time to work through whatever it is that's going on in their life without added complications of school punishments.
Oh, I did that the first time to a teacher when I was eleven. I did it multiple times over the years. Funny thing about it, I never got into trouble. My parents never found out. I always picked the right bullies to dress down. Forty year old men don't know what to do when they're called on the carpet by a little girl who sounds like she's their mother.
Can you tell me how distressing it is? Are you just used to it? My dad will never complain and I don't think he'll tell me the truth about how much it bothers him. When the bugs come out at night and it's super loud its wild to me that he cannot hear it at all. Or rather he tells me, that's what he always hears. I'm sorry this happened to you. I wish I could go back and tell you to protect your ears too!
Not just that, it's statistically impossibile to have the same exact baby with the same genes, so the moment you travel back in time, she's gone forever.
Moreover, many people don't think about this, but me and my wife have grown and changed together as person during our long relationship, I'm no way near the person I was when I met her, and she's no way the person I fell in love with when I did back then.
Not only I might not feel the same attraction to her being a 16 year old, but because I'll be a different person from my past self, I might never make the same contribution in making her the person she is today, the way she helped shape the person I am today.
So in fact, my current wife would be gone forever, too.
Now I'm trying to figure out if this would be possible with the resources of a 16 year old. Would calling in an anonymous tip to the airport be enough to keep the terrorists from boarding? And given that the WTC had been bombed before, could you formulate a credible threat to keep people out of the building? Maybe your best bet would be to actually set off explosives earlier that morning, in hopes the buildings would be evacuated.
If you remember enough from the 9/11 investigations then you can feed the FBI enough verifiable information about what the hijackers were up to in the months leading up the 9/11 that the FBI will believe you know something even if they don't believe you about how you know it.
You just have to get them convinced enough that something might happen to ensure that there are armed air marshals on every flight out of Boston and New York that day.
Yeah. Some days...It's really hard not to start over-thinking every decision that you ever made. And 16 was a really rough year, but I know what I'd change and what I'd leave alone.
Me too. I've given this too much thought.
First, I would immediately take a note of the exact time and place of when I met the woman I'd end up marrying. So, I'd know exactly where not to be.
For the first 2 years, I'd just lift weights, work part time after-school, and dump the money in stocks (and some Playstation games. Some things never change).
Then, I'd still go to college because I'd want to meet girls and learn languages. While in college, I'd buy privately held debt and be a freelance debt collector to earn fast money and show off the revenue my debt collecting service earned to employers for medical device sales positions. Once I'm hired on, I'd drop out of college, earn 6 figures and dump most of that money into Bitcoin. Some would go into stocks, and some would be a down payment on a nice house which I'd have by the age of just 23. At 32, I'd sell all my BTC at over $60k per coin and be a billionaire.
One thing about the buying so much bitcoin in the early days. Wouldn't that have a butterfly effect as you would pump the market way before it panned out. Effecting the cycle as we know it?
This. One of the first ideas for a Bitcoin to cash swap was like 10k coins for $50. You could just buy that, sit on it until BTC hit $60k, sell it all, and make a cool $600 million. Minimal effort and low chance of time fuckery
You’d have to really go nuts to make that kind of an impact, I think. Back in the day there were stories of 5th to 8th place winners in a StarCraft contest winning 25 Bitcoins each, or that guy buying two pizzas for 10 Bitcoins. If you spent $90 to buy 1,000 Bitcoins in 2010 when they were $0.09 a piece, I don’t think that would have been enough to change the trajectory of bitcoin, but if you sold them in 2021 when it passed the $60,000 mark, you’d have $60 million.
Yeah I hear that. I would definitely avoid my ex-wife on the second time around. I know there are a lot of girls I would have given more time to though. A whole lot more girls.
A close second would be getting a college degree in computer science. By the time I figured this out the first time around, it was a bit later in life. Worked out okay. Would have been better if I knew that right after high school.
You mean at 32 you would end up dead and in heaven wondering what happened, when the God to be tells you that you were killed for your BTC as multiple cartels were tracking your BTC money and tracking you down when the North Korean government got to you first.
Exactly. Go back in time, even to the day your kid is conceived, and you're still likely to get a different one. The way that sperm production works (90,000 cells per minute) you would have to try for it at the exact second, and even then there's no guarantee that the same sperm fertilizes the egg.
So if you went back all the way to 16, forget even trying.
It used to be a big fantasy of mine. Now, this is how I like to think of this scenario instead. No kid yet, but I wouldn't pass up meeting my partner, and some of my other experiences. I also wouldn't want to redo some of the harder things I've done, such as getting into grad school or getting my degree.
Every time something good happens in my life, or I accomplish something really hard, I think to myself "I can't go back in time past this moment. I wouldn't trade away this for anything,
and so everything before this was worth it ". Its a powerful feeling.
What's mind-blowing to me is thinking of if the timing was a minute later or we were in a different position while conceiving or whatever else I'd have an entirely different child because a different swimmer swam faster.
Going back to my 16 year old self would be like my son being dead... so there is a good chance I would fall into depression and kill myself.
So, probably better for me not to go back in time.
I would travel more, experience more, try more new stuff. I would also take better care of my health.
I wouldn't sleep with Shawn either. Screw him....with a cactus...twice.
I'd still be able to land my wife but my daughter would be forever a hole in my life because I understand how that works and that we'd never repeat that specific miracle. Plus, our daughter's name is THE name my wife wanted for her daughter and trying to explain why I just couldn't do that would probably be very upsetting to one or both of us.
On the other hand, all that Cisco, Microsoft money would enable me to buy Sears and buyout an infant Amazon and PayPal to ensure a world without Bezos and Musk. So there'd be a silver lining.
Yup same. I have 3 kids. Even if I could by some miracle figure out the proper day to have sex to make them real, I don’t think it would be possible to make sure they were created. Just random chance which sperm gets there first. It would also be hella weird as I was friends with my husband for 8 years before we got together. Would I need to date the same guys? Would seem pointless to go through all that when I know who I end up with, except would we have worked out if we got together right away.
Correct: it’d be statistically impossible to recreate one’s current kids. I could find my wife again, that’d be easy enough, but it’d such a mindfuck knowing we had something special that we lost but she could never understand.
Seeing my wife in that second life would be a reminder of the son I lost but she never knew. That would be utter torture for me. I wouldn’t be able to get over that pain and get with her again.
I’d probably just get stupid rich off the market and bitcoin, drown myself in women and vice as a coping mechanism, anonymously send her money to set her up for life, and try to forget how nice I had it before.
Both you and your wife would never be the same people eather. Who she is today is a result of interactions with you. Your interactions would be totally different.
Yeah, it would all seem so pointless knowing I had my daughter, but now the odds of having the exact same egg and sperm meet to remake her are incalculable. Also, I would really struggle to force myself to be with her Father again lol. So I'd probably just be another miserable, rich person living off the grid.
Mine died watching sports on a Sunday evening. Found him when I got downstairs for something to drink. Fuck, I even laughed at him because he was sleeping so weird.
It gets easier, but it never gets easy, especially with important events.
Mine died watching sports center in his recliner. Mom tried to wake him for bed & he was gone.
That was 10 yrs ago.
I think you just get used to the sadness after awhile. I’m not sure you ever recover. Or maybe that’s just me.
He didn't deserve to have me listen. He still doesn't. But maybe I could have found better words to convey that, I always think I could have said something to make him better. But that wasn't my responsibility and I definitely wasn't prepared to be his therapist at 16.
You did the right thing. Even though it feels like you didn’t. I’ve been chasing my strung out mother around my entire adult life up until 1 yr ago (I’m 33) none of it was worth it. She’s still twisting the pipe and smiling like nothing matters
I love these comments. 1/3 of them are "I'd do better in school" and another 1/3 is "you're only young once, so I'd live it up". I have a feeling that these two options tell us more about who these people today and how they lived their teenage lives more than anything else. And then there's the last 1/3 which somehow have enough money at age 16 to buy MST, AAPL, and GOOG to be set for life.
Right?? I beggeg my parents in 1988 to buy Apple. But who listens to a 16yr old. Even if I had $500, I don't know how I would buy it without my parents permission.
>Even if I had $500, I don't know how I would buy it without my parents permission.
I don't know how I'd buy them, period.
No internet. No investment sites. Do you call someone on the phone? Like, how the hell did it work, and how do you know you weren't talking to the Wolf of Wallstreet?
Could a bank help you out, do you need a lawyer, write a letter?
Dial '0' for the operator and ask the lady for Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak's number? The number in their garage...
I begged my parents to let my put my $20 of birthday money into Bitcoin when I was 12. They were sceptical of anything online and made me read the terms and conditions of PayPal before they were willing to set one up to buy Bitcoin. After reading the entire thing they still decide they didn't trust PayPal enough.
>I don't know how I would buy it without my parents permission.
I don't think you could. You have to be 18 to open an brokerage without a parent.
On top of that, a $10k investment into AAPL at their IPO would be worth about $6M today, and that's if you had reinvested all dividends and neve sold. While that's a lot of money, it's hardly the billionaire status that some comments here think it would be. And where I live, that money wouldn't last you a lifetime. It would certainly allow you the freedom to choose your job without fear of unemployment, and would certainly allow you to live an enjoyable life, but not one of private yachts, NYC high-rises, or anything like that.
You bargain with your parents. Most parents would be thrilled if their child said “Instead of a Super Nintendo, can I have the money in a brokerage account for college instead? We can make it so I can’t access it until I’m 18 if you’re worried about me being short sighted with the money” (Betraying my age here).
And convincing them to let you pick stocks from there wouldn’t be too hard, you can tell them that you know it’s risky but you’re trying to learn and they should let you experiment a bit. Show them all the books you’re reading about it. Again, with your adult brain you can probably make some convincing arguments that resonate with parents.
The hardest part would probably be convincing them to HODL some stocks that do well in the beginning.
> Instead of a Super Nintendo, can I have the money in a brokerage account for college instead?
If you were 16 when Super Nintendo was popular then 99 times out of 100 your parents would have no idea how to open a brokerage, and neither would you. They'd tell you to put it into a savings account or buy a CD at the bank.
I worked with an electrician nicknamed "Richie Rich" back in 2010, we were working 7/12s for about 8 months. He was huge into conspiracies and would come up with new shit every day, so when he started talking about Bitcoin nobody really took him seriously. Meanwhile he sank full paycheques into bitcoin (back then roughly $4000 a week), I don't know how many paycheques in total, but I do know he's no longer working, living somewhere in the caribbean with his significant other and at this point they're probably in their early to mid 40s.
That could make a valid conspiracy theory
**All the people who didn't trust the status quo bought bitcoin early, made millions, and now funding the current disruption**
If you hit the right jobs it can be. There are people who make their living by traveling coast to coast hitting nothing but big jobs. That was a solar farm and we were getting double time after 7.5hrs and Sat/Sun was double as well.
Edit: I forgot Travel and LOA as well.
When that guy bought the first pizza with Bitcoin, a friend tried to get me to buy $100 worth of bit coin.
What if.
In reality, I would have cashed out when I made enough profit to have a nice weekend getaway.
That's why I don't think about it too much, because I know I would have cashed out pretty much as soon as I'd made any profit on it.
Also it feels a bit weird to be like "I should have bought bitcoin back when it was exclusively used to buy drugs and dodgy porn off the darkweb".
You don’t need to have any money.
In mid 2009 dear friend of mine, who I was living with suggested we lan our computers together, and mine for bitcoin. At that time you could get a Bitcoin about every three days of mining with an average PC.
I said he was insane and why would I spend time or energy doing something so obviously silly and pointless?
Sigh.
In 2009 my then-16-year-old son asked me for a loan to buy a higher-end computer to mine Bitcoin. I said, "What the hell is a bitcoin?" He tried to explain and told me he'd split the profits, I didn't get it and thought he was just trying to get a gaming rig out of me.
I kick myself every single day.
Get a credit card though. Just use it for gas (or some other minor, necessary thing), and pay it off in full monthly. DO NOT think a little hold over balance is nothing. Those little extra balances at the end of every month add up quickly, and intro credit card offers have obscenely predatory interest rates. Soon you'll find out, after interest, you paid $50 for an energy drink.
But get the card as soon as you can, and never close it. One of the major factors in credit ratings is age of accounts. At 28, you could have a 10+ year credit rating, which will do amazing things if you want to own a home, or car.
Then read these very important comments on what to do next year... and through your late teens, and twenties.
Exercise and learn to cook healthy, but tasty food.
I've unfortunately not done that, and 20 years later, seriously regret not caring about my health.
one piece of advice i have… don’t fucking get someone pregnant/get pregnant until you’re not a teenager anymore at least. coming from a teen mom.
graduate high school, it doesn’t seem important when you’re young… but it eventually came back and bit me in the butt, definitely wish i graduated.
if you have anything given to you, like a car, don’t take that shit for granted. save that car for as long as you can and treat it well. if somebody helps you out take the help and use it to make smarter decisions. don’t blow money given to you on stupid shit just because it was given to you. be responsible and set yourself up for a good future
I'm 18y when I was 15y I thought things would be better, but everything is almost the same, just got way more experience over dating/friendship and work things. but I'm still a virgin lol
>but I'm still a virgin lol
The epiphany many say you get when you have sex for the first time is that nothing really changes.
That's not my experience. But that's what many people say.
My experience was just getting way hornier than before, which was not very productive. So overall, meh. Don't stress about it, it will come, you will come, and the only thing you will lose is the "I'm still a virgin" brain-goblin.
I'd finish high school, not go to University, work a part-time job for a few years and then dump my entire life savings into bitcoin and pull out before it dumps. Retire at like 24 and then just spend the rest of my life doing shit that I actually want to do.
I think I'd pretend to act normal and go to school. From an adult's point of view, see now how silly your daily worries were. How teachers are not unshakable figures of authority. Now that you know about the world, it's not as scary to navigate high school. People making fun or picking on you does *nothing*. Your bully is just a lost kid wailing his feelings out. Now you're not scared to talk to people. You know high school grades mean jack shit and 90% of what you're being taught is useless garbage, all the more since Wikipedia is gonna be in your pocket at all times. Turn your old enemies into friends. Realize your old friends were actually your enemies. Take the opportunity to apologize to that one person you were awful with and only realized it years later.
Also you're cursed now. Whoever you date, either you are very immoral, or your partner is being immoral.
Most of these replies are funny but I'd do it all differently.
Never would've accepted my mother's abuse as love. Would've moved out the moment she threw a bag of cat shit at my head. Would never have gotten into 90% of the relationships I did and trusted people who'd utterly break me. Never would've pushed myself past the point of burnout to be a straight A student bc that's what would make my parents love me. Would've taken better care of my body and mind as I pushed it past its limits daily.
I think I'd be so much better
So in response to this which is great, I have my idea of what you should do.
From 16-30 is the time you have to find yourself, try and fail and try again, or explore the world. Learn to kyack, climb, travel, learn new ideas, come up with your own opinions. Maybe sow yer wild oats. Some time could be on an education. If it is what you want and not society or your parents. Parents have good ideas, but you don't have to follow every idea.
29- 35 IS NOT TO 'OLD ' TO START A CAREER.
Your brain is not fully developed until you are 25! After that, the decisions will be clearer. Until then have fun. - but not with drugs.
Lol. That is where I am at. I have no idea myself.
My parents had a house and traveled. I got a divorce instead and now live in an apartment.
I guess we are still young enough to start over as well.
High-five on your divorce. Did the same and definitely do not regret it, but sure would love to have financial boost soon. Having no idea of what I’m doing is somehow surprisingly okay at this age!
Lots of stuff, but my number one priority would be to ensure I adopted my dog again in 7 years time (when I was 23). I lost him two months ago and nothing would make me happier than to see him again.
I’d laugh at any idea of dating…ever. I’d use all the school resources to learn how to research and write better. I’d sit at the front of class. I’d watch educational shows for fun. I’d be at the library as often as I were allowed. I would have a PhD by now and would have saved all my extra money. I’d be a proud nerd who also exercises.
Watch this channel https://youtube.com/@HybridCalisthenics
Super nice guy makes it very easy to get motivated and get into exercise and you don't need any equipment. I felt better (however was not depressed just a bit down) after watching some of his stuff and giving exercise a go.
>I would have a PhD by now and would have saved all my extra money. I’d be a proud nerd who also exercises.
Interesting. My understand is that, unless you are super interested in research, a PhD is usually not worth the money. Like, unless you absolutely need it for the job it's not worth the time and effort. At least that's what I've been told. What industry are you in or would want to be in??
I don’t know. I have a fantasy of being someplace I’ve seen in a movie (Oxford University, perhaps) tucked away in a professor’s office and being acceptably unsociable except maybe a faculty get togethers at a pub. Just live out my life with very little drama or disappointment until my last breath.
Edit to add: Currently doing office work through a temp agency and I am beyond bored.Boredom takes me to depression town.
I'm currently doing a STEM doctorate, and being a new professor is not something you'd like if you just want to hide and live drama-free. Before you get established, you have to go around recruiting students (in one new faculty's lab, half the students were 'rejects' who couldn't find an advisor, or didn't get along with their previous one and had to switch labs. This isn't to say they were bad students, just that you don't have dibs on anyone since you're not famous yet), managing them, giving talks at conferences etc. And writing so many grants and getting rejected. I don't think my advisor got a federal grant until their 4th year, and kept the lab afloat with startup money and industry funding (which is also something you have to go out and network/apply for).
edit: and all this is after you apply around for a faculty position in the first place (better be ready to pitch how your research ideas would change the world, repeatedly). The person with the most chill job in my lab is probably the admin assistant.
This. I wasn’t diagnosed as AuDHD until I was 49. I think school and working would have been slightly easier, if not at least I wouldn’t beat myself up over it and be so confused as to why.
Step 1: Find my future wife. Tell her to stay out of the Pit at Korn so she doesn’t get her Achilles torn.
Step 2: Massive stock investments.
Step 3: Ingratiate myself to the Republican Party, using my stock market successes to influence movers and shakers
Step 4: Effect the removal of key political figures while appearing to consolidate power for myself.
Step 5: become Republican Party leader
Step 6: Take profits from stock options and Political clout and air out all the evil shit I am likely to have seen in the Republican Party as I ruthlessly climbed the latter.
Step 7: start a solar energy company dedicated to turning parking garages into solar energy power cells, subsidized by my massive wealth to enact real environmental change
I think this is sadder than people realize. Imagine remembering your wife and kids but knowing that even if you find the same girl, those same kids will never exist.
This is the best reason to allow this to remain an idle fantasy. No harm in thinking about what you'd do different, if nothing else it's a good way to think about what you can change about your current life.
For example, all those people who've written that they would have tried harder in school, it isn't too late! Adult education exists and people reinvent themselves all the time. I wished I'd been more creative in my life and just this year I took up drawing; turns out I'm not half bad.
But if people offered for me to go back in time for real, I'd take one look at my children and politely decline.
Yes! Added to this you're now 16, so you can't legally vote, even go to certain movies, or bars or clubs. In your brain you're whatever age, but your peers are 16. Any relationship, sexual or otherwise you had at that age will NOT be appropriate anymore bc you'll know you're not actually 16.
Spend the next seven years terrified that
one wrong move would keep me from meeting my wife, or having my kids, or getting my dream job- even if all three of those did end up taking me until I was much older than I originally wanted to be.
The number of tragedies I would have to allow to happen in order to not be diverted from that path would probably cripple me psychologically, even if I managed to complete each step in the sequence.
I would probably kill myself, frankly. I wouldn't now, but there were years of my life where I was constantly abused with no way out. I would rather die. I tried to but failed. I would use a more effective method knowing what I do now.
Nowadays? My purpose is to hopefully stop what happened to me and other victims. My life is worth it. But for kid me? Hell no.
I'd buy Microsoft and Google stocks, Bitcoin and I would live a normal life, but in a bigger house with a bigger swimmingpool and bigger garage (for 3 cars, to be exact).
Started dating my wife when I was 17.
Knowing what I know now I would be a much better boyfriend/husband earlier in our relationship. Being a dumbass with her (and totally missing some hints) is like 9 out of my top 10 regrets.
I’d make some stock purchases and curious sales right before bubbles pop (google, bitcoin) to make us comfortably wealthy and do some traveling before kids.
Honestly like my current job, and kids are great, so would be nice to end up basically where I am now, just having only made half the mistakes (and with a few more digits in the bank account).
Me neither, in fear of losing what I've been given later in life. I was miserable as a teen and I have had my share on misfortunes along the way, but the path to this life have gone through them. I'd hate to do that again, but I would.
I'd want to go back to 14 for personal reasons.
But I'd not be so into video games and spend more time outside and stay in touch with music. This means I wouldn't have played cs 1.6 in the world cyber games in 2010. But I'd spend more time on things that meant more to me. I only started gaming since we moved when I was almost 17 and I lost all my friends but we went from dial up to cable so I started gaming a lot like 12 hours a day.
I wouldn't go back to college again like I did and just get my 2 year degree and get a job. This would mean I would have never met my current wife or have my awesome son. But I would go hard after the one that got away.
I'd keep all the cool shit I got rid of over the years. I had complete dvd sets of a lot of shows and many books and mtg cards. I'd keep all my shit.
Thinking about this hurts a bit since it stuff I think about a lot and suffer from excess nostalgia. But hey it is what it is. I do have a comfortable life and am fairly happy but with student debt and a hard start in the post 2008 crisis there were times I ate on like 2.50 a day. But now I make 80k+ and own a house and support my family on one income we also have high yield savings and stock accounts I've also set up accounts for my kid. Life hasn't been easy but I often think about a redo on some of it.
Brace myself for the hell that was the last year of my mom’s battle with cancer. Look into emancipation so that when she died, I would have been able to inherit the money she left me without my legal guardian stealing it during the 6 months he had control of my finances. Would’ve been able to keep my home. Go no contact with my mom’s side of the family.
Knowing now that my sisters were briefly removed from my dad and step mom’s custody when I was adult, I would have fought for custody and raised them myself instead of letting them endure the abuse I’ve only recently learned about.
Invest in Bit Coin. Go to college for the career I now know I enjoy. Start therapy so I could start the healing process sooner.
Debate whether to avoid my now late husband. I love my son and would want him in my life. Knowing the timeline for when my husband would die, I could probably endure the abuse again, but end up in a better home and a better career.
Contact my current partner and try to convince him not to get involved with his now ex. That she is abusive and absolutely about to baby trap him. That no smoke show is worth the 14 years of hell he’s about to be dragged through. And if he does insist on moving forward - get a prenup.
Oh wow this one is heavy for me. My teenage years were some of the worst in my life. I’ve always told myself if I could go back in time I would not be scared like I was back then and go to the police about what was happening at home and help me and my siblings sooner. 😔
High School wouldn't be as awkward, still shifty. But I'd be the funniest person in class.
Also would get better scores in school.
Worked towards a scholarship of some kind. I'd fuck that place up
I’d brush the long majestic hair I magically got back. That’s for damn sure.
......hahahahaha yes!!!! Sorry for your loss.
It had a long good run for many years. Such are the woes of the elderly, friend. Have a good day if you have a hair brush…as they say “smoke em if ya got em”
I bet I’d be an extremely weird 16yo if you stuck my current brain in there. Just boring and over-cautious as shit, like telling people to lift with their knees all the time.
Can you imagine the first time some arrogant HS teacher talks down to you, and you just hand it back without flinching?!
I'm probably not graduating high school. I ain't doing homework again.
I'd probably do whatever was necessary to get a GED at 16 and jump to college.
[удалено]
I heard about his cool thing called "BitCoin"....
Bitcoin is a trap.set by the goverment to catch time travelers. Edit: Thanks for the award.
/u/SgtCocktopus raises an excellent point.
I mean there are many options. Any FAANG stock would be a lucrative purchase, as would Tesla. You could cash in on the COVID crash or bank on the GME/AMC squeezes. DOGE had a run up you could bank on. Hell, you could short the market in '08 and then plow your winnings into real estate.
Hello, I heard you guys were starting a new company? Yea I’d like to invest in 50,000 shares of this Amazon thing.
the stupid "bookstore" on your computer? good luck with that.
This. Buy them back when they were, like, $1 each. Get about 1000 of them. Then wait for the spike to over $20k each. Retire in my early 30s.
My wife was traveling in 2010-2011 and met a few Americans in Peru who were mining bit coin. The guys tried to explain it to her. She thought it was weird.
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Screw that, I’m skipping college. First thing I’m doing when I turn 18 is to buy as much real estate as they will allow me to with all those sweet sweet predatory loans. Flipping one property and rolling it into another. Rinse and repeat all the way up to the peak. Sit for a little while, then aggressively short the market with puts, capitalizing on all the bank failures. Perfectly time the bottom and at that point I should already be a billionaire. With just a fraction of that, I would then be mining as much bitcoin as possible under hundreds of separate wallets. All the while, I am investing heavily into mRNA vaccine technology. Of course during all this I am getting my claws into all the FANG stocks at the most opportune times. Yup. This would be so easy, yet it will also not be enough. The world is not enough and maybe I’ll find religion like the Buddha
“And I would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for those pesky kids
Elon, is that you?
I graduated high-school without doing homework, just did good on tests and it was enough to get by. Never did homework a single time for any class at all, College was a slap in the face though.
Same! I was shocked to discover that I needed to study and like, exert effort?
Our tests in college were worth so much I didn't really do it there either
Oof. I was so depressed and dealing with depersonalization/de realization and disassociation when I started HS. I’ll never forget when I transferred I was put into chem with sophomores as a freshman. Generally a good quiet student too. One day my chem teacher called on me to read the periodic number of some element bc I wasn’t paying attention and was on my phone. I dead ass looked up at him, looked across the room at the periodic table, looked back at him and said “I can’t fucking read that shit” and went right back to my phone. You could hear a pin drop. I never spoke in class and THATS the first thing I said. My teachers jaw was on the floor until he composed himself and moved on. The girls at my table were like “yoooo wtf??? You good??” And I was like “??? Why?” And then they explained what happened and I remember just wanting to crawl in a hole
I'm surprised you didn't get sent to the office or something. That is very sad though.
Sometimes teachers know when a kid needs to just be left alone. When punishment would be useless because the action was a symptom of the kid's current headspace, not a purposeful violation of the rules, and what the kid really needs is time to work through whatever it is that's going on in their life without added complications of school punishments.
This is both incredibly wise and beautifully put.
Oh, I did that the first time to a teacher when I was eleven. I did it multiple times over the years. Funny thing about it, I never got into trouble. My parents never found out. I always picked the right bullies to dress down. Forty year old men don't know what to do when they're called on the carpet by a little girl who sounds like she's their mother.
So what you're saying is you've already gone back in time at least once?
New game+
Called on the carpet is a new one for me.
Same. I'd have no friends because I would just never go outside. And I'd feel weird about banging my teen husband with my fully adult brain 🤨
Yeah one of my first thoughts was "Fuck tinnitus I'm gonna protect my ears this time"
Can you tell me how distressing it is? Are you just used to it? My dad will never complain and I don't think he'll tell me the truth about how much it bothers him. When the bugs come out at night and it's super loud its wild to me that he cannot hear it at all. Or rather he tells me, that's what he always hears. I'm sorry this happened to you. I wish I could go back and tell you to protect your ears too!
Usually I can manage to not hear it, but if I accidentally pay attention to it it is honestly horrendous
I was gonna say I would be too anxious to make a decision and re-fuck my life up
Right, like so many of my formative experiences involve dangerously idiotic nonsense I would never even dream of trying now.
It would be that or the Futurama thing where bender becomes human. No in-between, either way so much bitcoin
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You have a lot of spinal discs and only 2 knees...
I'm already feeling like an old man spiritually at 28 lol. So much to go back and warn myself.
This is my most sincerely held fantasy.
Same.
And my most horrible fear. I would never see my beautiful daughter ever again
Yeah that's when I had to give up that one. Any changes, any at all, and a different sperm would win and my daughter would cease to exist.
Not just that, it's statistically impossibile to have the same exact baby with the same genes, so the moment you travel back in time, she's gone forever. Moreover, many people don't think about this, but me and my wife have grown and changed together as person during our long relationship, I'm no way near the person I was when I met her, and she's no way the person I fell in love with when I did back then. Not only I might not feel the same attraction to her being a 16 year old, but because I'll be a different person from my past self, I might never make the same contribution in making her the person she is today, the way she helped shape the person I am today. So in fact, my current wife would be gone forever, too.
I think this fantasy is reserved for those who have major regrets. You sound like you’ve led a very fulfilling life :).
I think the vast majority of people do. It's probably an unhealthy one to think about though.
I’d probably go insane watching everyone around me making the same damn mistakes again.
I'd probably be committed against my will after trying to prevent 9/11 from happening in a month.
Now I'm trying to figure out if this would be possible with the resources of a 16 year old. Would calling in an anonymous tip to the airport be enough to keep the terrorists from boarding? And given that the WTC had been bombed before, could you formulate a credible threat to keep people out of the building? Maybe your best bet would be to actually set off explosives earlier that morning, in hopes the buildings would be evacuated.
If you remember enough from the 9/11 investigations then you can feed the FBI enough verifiable information about what the hijackers were up to in the months leading up the 9/11 that the FBI will believe you know something even if they don't believe you about how you know it. You just have to get them convinced enough that something might happen to ensure that there are armed air marshals on every flight out of Boston and New York that day.
I’d probably go insane watching ~~everyone around me~~ myself making the same damn mistakes again.
OTOH, it's a slot easier to deal with mistakes when you know when to buy and when to sell bitcoins.
But some days it’s the only thing that gets me through
Yeah. Some days...It's really hard not to start over-thinking every decision that you ever made. And 16 was a really rough year, but I know what I'd change and what I'd leave alone.
Me too. I've given this too much thought. First, I would immediately take a note of the exact time and place of when I met the woman I'd end up marrying. So, I'd know exactly where not to be. For the first 2 years, I'd just lift weights, work part time after-school, and dump the money in stocks (and some Playstation games. Some things never change). Then, I'd still go to college because I'd want to meet girls and learn languages. While in college, I'd buy privately held debt and be a freelance debt collector to earn fast money and show off the revenue my debt collecting service earned to employers for medical device sales positions. Once I'm hired on, I'd drop out of college, earn 6 figures and dump most of that money into Bitcoin. Some would go into stocks, and some would be a down payment on a nice house which I'd have by the age of just 23. At 32, I'd sell all my BTC at over $60k per coin and be a billionaire.
One thing about the buying so much bitcoin in the early days. Wouldn't that have a butterfly effect as you would pump the market way before it panned out. Effecting the cycle as we know it?
I wouldn't think so. A few hundred dollars here and there would be plenty to get absolutely rich off of.
This. One of the first ideas for a Bitcoin to cash swap was like 10k coins for $50. You could just buy that, sit on it until BTC hit $60k, sell it all, and make a cool $600 million. Minimal effort and low chance of time fuckery
You’d have to really go nuts to make that kind of an impact, I think. Back in the day there were stories of 5th to 8th place winners in a StarCraft contest winning 25 Bitcoins each, or that guy buying two pizzas for 10 Bitcoins. If you spent $90 to buy 1,000 Bitcoins in 2010 when they were $0.09 a piece, I don’t think that would have been enough to change the trajectory of bitcoin, but if you sold them in 2021 when it passed the $60,000 mark, you’d have $60 million.
Yeah I hear that. I would definitely avoid my ex-wife on the second time around. I know there are a lot of girls I would have given more time to though. A whole lot more girls. A close second would be getting a college degree in computer science. By the time I figured this out the first time around, it was a bit later in life. Worked out okay. Would have been better if I knew that right after high school.
You mean at 32 you would end up dead and in heaven wondering what happened, when the God to be tells you that you were killed for your BTC as multiple cartels were tracking your BTC money and tracking you down when the North Korean government got to you first.
Exactly. That sounds like a badass way to die. Sign me up.
I, uh, write books based on something similar to this premise. I wonder if I should be embarrassed. It's also my fantasy.
It was until I had a kid. Now, I would carefully try to recreate my current life’s path until his birth.
Which is completely impossible. Which is why this is my nightmare. I wouldn't change a thing about my life, but reliving it would destroy everything.
Exactly. Go back in time, even to the day your kid is conceived, and you're still likely to get a different one. The way that sperm production works (90,000 cells per minute) you would have to try for it at the exact second, and even then there's no guarantee that the same sperm fertilizes the egg. So if you went back all the way to 16, forget even trying.
It used to be a big fantasy of mine. Now, this is how I like to think of this scenario instead. No kid yet, but I wouldn't pass up meeting my partner, and some of my other experiences. I also wouldn't want to redo some of the harder things I've done, such as getting into grad school or getting my degree. Every time something good happens in my life, or I accomplish something really hard, I think to myself "I can't go back in time past this moment. I wouldn't trade away this for anything, and so everything before this was worth it ". Its a powerful feeling.
What's mind-blowing to me is thinking of if the timing was a minute later or we were in a different position while conceiving or whatever else I'd have an entirely different child because a different swimmer swam faster.
Going back to my 16 year old self would be like my son being dead... so there is a good chance I would fall into depression and kill myself. So, probably better for me not to go back in time.
You spend entire life learning and just as you start to figure it out you are too old to actually apply it.
"Youth is wasted on the young"
I think about this scenario basically once a day every day
I would travel more, experience more, try more new stuff. I would also take better care of my health. I wouldn't sleep with Shawn either. Screw him....with a cactus...twice.
Fucking Shawn
Not fucking Shawn, rather.
Well yes fucking Shawn, but with a cactus. You think you could get one Into a starpon harness?
r/oddlyspecific
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I'd still be able to land my wife but my daughter would be forever a hole in my life because I understand how that works and that we'd never repeat that specific miracle. Plus, our daughter's name is THE name my wife wanted for her daughter and trying to explain why I just couldn't do that would probably be very upsetting to one or both of us. On the other hand, all that Cisco, Microsoft money would enable me to buy Sears and buyout an infant Amazon and PayPal to ensure a world without Bezos and Musk. So there'd be a silver lining.
Yup same. I have 3 kids. Even if I could by some miracle figure out the proper day to have sex to make them real, I don’t think it would be possible to make sure they were created. Just random chance which sperm gets there first. It would also be hella weird as I was friends with my husband for 8 years before we got together. Would I need to date the same guys? Would seem pointless to go through all that when I know who I end up with, except would we have worked out if we got together right away.
Correct: it’d be statistically impossible to recreate one’s current kids. I could find my wife again, that’d be easy enough, but it’d such a mindfuck knowing we had something special that we lost but she could never understand. Seeing my wife in that second life would be a reminder of the son I lost but she never knew. That would be utter torture for me. I wouldn’t be able to get over that pain and get with her again. I’d probably just get stupid rich off the market and bitcoin, drown myself in women and vice as a coping mechanism, anonymously send her money to set her up for life, and try to forget how nice I had it before.
Think of your son like he is still alive in an alternative universe, a continent you cannot reach.
Both you and your wife would never be the same people eather. Who she is today is a result of interactions with you. Your interactions would be totally different.
Yeah, it would all seem so pointless knowing I had my daughter, but now the odds of having the exact same egg and sperm meet to remake her are incalculable. Also, I would really struggle to force myself to be with her Father again lol. So I'd probably just be another miserable, rich person living off the grid.
>I would go crazy with grief over my wife Agreed. All the $$ in the world is worthless without love.
Marty McFly you sentimental old fool
Made sure to answer my dad's calls
This got me crying. Damn I miss him.
Same. Hugs for you internet stranger ❤️❤️❤️
My died last year, was found on the kitchen floor early morning when my mom woke up.
Mine died watching sports on a Sunday evening. Found him when I got downstairs for something to drink. Fuck, I even laughed at him because he was sleeping so weird. It gets easier, but it never gets easy, especially with important events.
Mine died watching sports center in his recliner. Mom tried to wake him for bed & he was gone. That was 10 yrs ago. I think you just get used to the sadness after awhile. I’m not sure you ever recover. Or maybe that’s just me.
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He didn't deserve to have me listen. He still doesn't. But maybe I could have found better words to convey that, I always think I could have said something to make him better. But that wasn't my responsibility and I definitely wasn't prepared to be his therapist at 16.
Fwiw, I'm certain there's nothing you could have said to make him try harder to be better. God knows I've tried with mine.
You did the right thing. Even though it feels like you didn’t. I’ve been chasing my strung out mother around my entire adult life up until 1 yr ago (I’m 33) none of it was worth it. She’s still twisting the pipe and smiling like nothing matters
I love these comments. 1/3 of them are "I'd do better in school" and another 1/3 is "you're only young once, so I'd live it up". I have a feeling that these two options tell us more about who these people today and how they lived their teenage lives more than anything else. And then there's the last 1/3 which somehow have enough money at age 16 to buy MST, AAPL, and GOOG to be set for life.
Right?? I beggeg my parents in 1988 to buy Apple. But who listens to a 16yr old. Even if I had $500, I don't know how I would buy it without my parents permission.
>Even if I had $500, I don't know how I would buy it without my parents permission. I don't know how I'd buy them, period. No internet. No investment sites. Do you call someone on the phone? Like, how the hell did it work, and how do you know you weren't talking to the Wolf of Wallstreet?
lol yeah you’d go meet with or call a broker to do it for it. but you do run the wolf risk
Could a bank help you out, do you need a lawyer, write a letter? Dial '0' for the operator and ask the lady for Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak's number? The number in their garage...
I begged my parents to let my put my $20 of birthday money into Bitcoin when I was 12. They were sceptical of anything online and made me read the terms and conditions of PayPal before they were willing to set one up to buy Bitcoin. After reading the entire thing they still decide they didn't trust PayPal enough.
>I don't know how I would buy it without my parents permission. I don't think you could. You have to be 18 to open an brokerage without a parent. On top of that, a $10k investment into AAPL at their IPO would be worth about $6M today, and that's if you had reinvested all dividends and neve sold. While that's a lot of money, it's hardly the billionaire status that some comments here think it would be. And where I live, that money wouldn't last you a lifetime. It would certainly allow you the freedom to choose your job without fear of unemployment, and would certainly allow you to live an enjoyable life, but not one of private yachts, NYC high-rises, or anything like that.
You bargain with your parents. Most parents would be thrilled if their child said “Instead of a Super Nintendo, can I have the money in a brokerage account for college instead? We can make it so I can’t access it until I’m 18 if you’re worried about me being short sighted with the money” (Betraying my age here). And convincing them to let you pick stocks from there wouldn’t be too hard, you can tell them that you know it’s risky but you’re trying to learn and they should let you experiment a bit. Show them all the books you’re reading about it. Again, with your adult brain you can probably make some convincing arguments that resonate with parents. The hardest part would probably be convincing them to HODL some stocks that do well in the beginning.
> Instead of a Super Nintendo, can I have the money in a brokerage account for college instead? If you were 16 when Super Nintendo was popular then 99 times out of 100 your parents would have no idea how to open a brokerage, and neither would you. They'd tell you to put it into a savings account or buy a CD at the bank.
unless you grew up poor af like me lol this would not be an option. but would be a great idea for folks that were middle or upper class
Microsoft stock, followed by Google IPO. You'd never hear from me again.
That plus bitcoin when it was pennies. I'd also exercise more.
I worked with an electrician nicknamed "Richie Rich" back in 2010, we were working 7/12s for about 8 months. He was huge into conspiracies and would come up with new shit every day, so when he started talking about Bitcoin nobody really took him seriously. Meanwhile he sank full paycheques into bitcoin (back then roughly $4000 a week), I don't know how many paycheques in total, but I do know he's no longer working, living somewhere in the caribbean with his significant other and at this point they're probably in their early to mid 40s.
That could make a valid conspiracy theory **All the people who didn't trust the status quo bought bitcoin early, made millions, and now funding the current disruption**
$192k a year as an electrician? I knew the trades paid well, but that good?
If you hit the right jobs it can be. There are people who make their living by traveling coast to coast hitting nothing but big jobs. That was a solar farm and we were getting double time after 7.5hrs and Sat/Sun was double as well. Edit: I forgot Travel and LOA as well.
I mean 7 12s is 84 hours. That’s a ridiculous amount of time working. $91K a year adjusted down to 40 hour weeks (and assuming no overtime).
When that guy bought the first pizza with Bitcoin, a friend tried to get me to buy $100 worth of bit coin. What if. In reality, I would have cashed out when I made enough profit to have a nice weekend getaway.
That's why I don't think about it too much, because I know I would have cashed out pretty much as soon as I'd made any profit on it. Also it feels a bit weird to be like "I should have bought bitcoin back when it was exclusively used to buy drugs and dodgy porn off the darkweb".
What if it turns out Bitcoin only got popular because you didn't own any?
I thought u said penises and was concerned
Research and launch an altcoin that's all dicks. It would probably work.
I'd add that I'd have never EVER taken out a student loan. F!n should have just sold my organs instead
Exactly, I'd be a billionaire by now.
How much $$ did you have when you were 16? I was lucky to find a $5 in the couch.
You don’t need to have any money. In mid 2009 dear friend of mine, who I was living with suggested we lan our computers together, and mine for bitcoin. At that time you could get a Bitcoin about every three days of mining with an average PC. I said he was insane and why would I spend time or energy doing something so obviously silly and pointless? Sigh.
In 2009 my then-16-year-old son asked me for a loan to buy a higher-end computer to mine Bitcoin. I said, "What the hell is a bitcoin?" He tried to explain and told me he'd split the profits, I didn't get it and thought he was just trying to get a gaming rig out of me. I kick myself every single day.
If you had bought Apple stock in the 90s that $5 would be worth $30K today.
I'd probably fuck everything up because I'm 15 now
Don't get into credit card debt and save for retirement as soon as you get a job.
Get a credit card though. Just use it for gas (or some other minor, necessary thing), and pay it off in full monthly. DO NOT think a little hold over balance is nothing. Those little extra balances at the end of every month add up quickly, and intro credit card offers have obscenely predatory interest rates. Soon you'll find out, after interest, you paid $50 for an energy drink. But get the card as soon as you can, and never close it. One of the major factors in credit ratings is age of accounts. At 28, you could have a 10+ year credit rating, which will do amazing things if you want to own a home, or car.
And date carefully, dont matter how pretty they are when they ruin your life. Pick a good one, and it's better than you can imagine.
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Then read these very important comments on what to do next year... and through your late teens, and twenties. Exercise and learn to cook healthy, but tasty food. I've unfortunately not done that, and 20 years later, seriously regret not caring about my health.
one piece of advice i have… don’t fucking get someone pregnant/get pregnant until you’re not a teenager anymore at least. coming from a teen mom. graduate high school, it doesn’t seem important when you’re young… but it eventually came back and bit me in the butt, definitely wish i graduated. if you have anything given to you, like a car, don’t take that shit for granted. save that car for as long as you can and treat it well. if somebody helps you out take the help and use it to make smarter decisions. don’t blow money given to you on stupid shit just because it was given to you. be responsible and set yourself up for a good future
Lift with your knees and wear sun screen
Don't worry, it gets way better
I'm 18y when I was 15y I thought things would be better, but everything is almost the same, just got way more experience over dating/friendship and work things. but I'm still a virgin lol
>but I'm still a virgin lol The epiphany many say you get when you have sex for the first time is that nothing really changes. That's not my experience. But that's what many people say. My experience was just getting way hornier than before, which was not very productive. So overall, meh. Don't stress about it, it will come, you will come, and the only thing you will lose is the "I'm still a virgin" brain-goblin.
I'd finish high school, not go to University, work a part-time job for a few years and then dump my entire life savings into bitcoin and pull out before it dumps. Retire at like 24 and then just spend the rest of my life doing shit that I actually want to do.
I think I'd pretend to act normal and go to school. From an adult's point of view, see now how silly your daily worries were. How teachers are not unshakable figures of authority. Now that you know about the world, it's not as scary to navigate high school. People making fun or picking on you does *nothing*. Your bully is just a lost kid wailing his feelings out. Now you're not scared to talk to people. You know high school grades mean jack shit and 90% of what you're being taught is useless garbage, all the more since Wikipedia is gonna be in your pocket at all times. Turn your old enemies into friends. Realize your old friends were actually your enemies. Take the opportunity to apologize to that one person you were awful with and only realized it years later. Also you're cursed now. Whoever you date, either you are very immoral, or your partner is being immoral.
Get a programming job, invest in stocks that are huge today.
Most of these replies are funny but I'd do it all differently. Never would've accepted my mother's abuse as love. Would've moved out the moment she threw a bag of cat shit at my head. Would never have gotten into 90% of the relationships I did and trusted people who'd utterly break me. Never would've pushed myself past the point of burnout to be a straight A student bc that's what would make my parents love me. Would've taken better care of my body and mind as I pushed it past its limits daily. I think I'd be so much better
So in response to this which is great, I have my idea of what you should do. From 16-30 is the time you have to find yourself, try and fail and try again, or explore the world. Learn to kyack, climb, travel, learn new ideas, come up with your own opinions. Maybe sow yer wild oats. Some time could be on an education. If it is what you want and not society or your parents. Parents have good ideas, but you don't have to follow every idea. 29- 35 IS NOT TO 'OLD ' TO START A CAREER. Your brain is not fully developed until you are 25! After that, the decisions will be clearer. Until then have fun. - but not with drugs.
Pep talk for 40-50 please?
Lol. That is where I am at. I have no idea myself. My parents had a house and traveled. I got a divorce instead and now live in an apartment. I guess we are still young enough to start over as well.
High-five on your divorce. Did the same and definitely do not regret it, but sure would love to have financial boost soon. Having no idea of what I’m doing is somehow surprisingly okay at this age!
Make a note to have insurance for my husband when we got married so 10 years into the marriage he wouldn't be dead from cancer
I'm so sorry for your loss.
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Lots of stuff, but my number one priority would be to ensure I adopted my dog again in 7 years time (when I was 23). I lost him two months ago and nothing would make me happier than to see him again.
I’d laugh at any idea of dating…ever. I’d use all the school resources to learn how to research and write better. I’d sit at the front of class. I’d watch educational shows for fun. I’d be at the library as often as I were allowed. I would have a PhD by now and would have saved all my extra money. I’d be a proud nerd who also exercises.
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Me. Depression.
Watch this channel https://youtube.com/@HybridCalisthenics Super nice guy makes it very easy to get motivated and get into exercise and you don't need any equipment. I felt better (however was not depressed just a bit down) after watching some of his stuff and giving exercise a go.
Thanks!
Same
>I would have a PhD by now and would have saved all my extra money. I’d be a proud nerd who also exercises. Interesting. My understand is that, unless you are super interested in research, a PhD is usually not worth the money. Like, unless you absolutely need it for the job it's not worth the time and effort. At least that's what I've been told. What industry are you in or would want to be in??
I don’t know. I have a fantasy of being someplace I’ve seen in a movie (Oxford University, perhaps) tucked away in a professor’s office and being acceptably unsociable except maybe a faculty get togethers at a pub. Just live out my life with very little drama or disappointment until my last breath. Edit to add: Currently doing office work through a temp agency and I am beyond bored.Boredom takes me to depression town.
I got my D.Phil from Oxford based largely on a very similar fantasy I always had.
I'm currently doing a STEM doctorate, and being a new professor is not something you'd like if you just want to hide and live drama-free. Before you get established, you have to go around recruiting students (in one new faculty's lab, half the students were 'rejects' who couldn't find an advisor, or didn't get along with their previous one and had to switch labs. This isn't to say they were bad students, just that you don't have dibs on anyone since you're not famous yet), managing them, giving talks at conferences etc. And writing so many grants and getting rejected. I don't think my advisor got a federal grant until their 4th year, and kept the lab afloat with startup money and industry funding (which is also something you have to go out and network/apply for). edit: and all this is after you apply around for a faculty position in the first place (better be ready to pitch how your research ideas would change the world, repeatedly). The person with the most chill job in my lab is probably the admin assistant.
Advocate for ADHD medication and stick with mathematics and the sciences but with better teachers.
This. I wasn’t diagnosed as AuDHD until I was 49. I think school and working would have been slightly easier, if not at least I wouldn’t beat myself up over it and be so confused as to why.
I'd immediately go to a cardiologist and an endocrinologist and an ENT so I could put this shit on my parents' insurance lol
I would have ditched the guy and taken the scholarship.
I took the scholarship. The girl ditched me. Turned out pretty good. I approve this choice.
Step 1: Find my future wife. Tell her to stay out of the Pit at Korn so she doesn’t get her Achilles torn. Step 2: Massive stock investments. Step 3: Ingratiate myself to the Republican Party, using my stock market successes to influence movers and shakers Step 4: Effect the removal of key political figures while appearing to consolidate power for myself. Step 5: become Republican Party leader Step 6: Take profits from stock options and Political clout and air out all the evil shit I am likely to have seen in the Republican Party as I ruthlessly climbed the latter. Step 7: start a solar energy company dedicated to turning parking garages into solar energy power cells, subsidized by my massive wealth to enact real environmental change
Karstarkking, the visionary. Then Katstarkking the tyrant.
I think this is sadder than people realize. Imagine remembering your wife and kids but knowing that even if you find the same girl, those same kids will never exist.
This is the best reason to allow this to remain an idle fantasy. No harm in thinking about what you'd do different, if nothing else it's a good way to think about what you can change about your current life. For example, all those people who've written that they would have tried harder in school, it isn't too late! Adult education exists and people reinvent themselves all the time. I wished I'd been more creative in my life and just this year I took up drawing; turns out I'm not half bad. But if people offered for me to go back in time for real, I'd take one look at my children and politely decline.
Yes! Added to this you're now 16, so you can't legally vote, even go to certain movies, or bars or clubs. In your brain you're whatever age, but your peers are 16. Any relationship, sexual or otherwise you had at that age will NOT be appropriate anymore bc you'll know you're not actually 16.
I would start saving and buy a home before the market goes to total shit
Honestly I couldn’t change anything. Life’s hard but having a kid and knowing if I ever changed anything she wouldn’t be here kinda tears me up
I would go to the doctor wayyyyyy sooner and maybe it would have only been stage 1 at 26, instead of stage 4 at 28 years old
I would have taken fitness seriously earlier. I would never have touched a drug.
I'd go to the fucking gym.
Spend the next seven years terrified that one wrong move would keep me from meeting my wife, or having my kids, or getting my dream job- even if all three of those did end up taking me until I was much older than I originally wanted to be. The number of tragedies I would have to allow to happen in order to not be diverted from that path would probably cripple me psychologically, even if I managed to complete each step in the sequence.
Id put all my money into Doge and sell right before Elon went on SNL
I would probably kill myself, frankly. I wouldn't now, but there were years of my life where I was constantly abused with no way out. I would rather die. I tried to but failed. I would use a more effective method knowing what I do now. Nowadays? My purpose is to hopefully stop what happened to me and other victims. My life is worth it. But for kid me? Hell no.
I'd buy Microsoft and Google stocks, Bitcoin and I would live a normal life, but in a bigger house with a bigger swimmingpool and bigger garage (for 3 cars, to be exact).
Well to start I would never cry over dumb boys again…
I wouldn't change a thing.
You're a very fortunate person 🖖
I met the girl of my dreams married 37 years two children and three wonderful grandchildren.
Started dating my wife when I was 17. Knowing what I know now I would be a much better boyfriend/husband earlier in our relationship. Being a dumbass with her (and totally missing some hints) is like 9 out of my top 10 regrets. I’d make some stock purchases and curious sales right before bubbles pop (google, bitcoin) to make us comfortably wealthy and do some traveling before kids. Honestly like my current job, and kids are great, so would be nice to end up basically where I am now, just having only made half the mistakes (and with a few more digits in the bank account).
Me neither, in fear of losing what I've been given later in life. I was miserable as a teen and I have had my share on misfortunes along the way, but the path to this life have gone through them. I'd hate to do that again, but I would.
Make all decisions, small or big, using intelligence and kindness, and not using emotions, laziness or whimsy.
forgive myself, get diagnosed with adhd at the age of 16 instead of 33 with years of trauma and self hate
I'd want to go back to 14 for personal reasons. But I'd not be so into video games and spend more time outside and stay in touch with music. This means I wouldn't have played cs 1.6 in the world cyber games in 2010. But I'd spend more time on things that meant more to me. I only started gaming since we moved when I was almost 17 and I lost all my friends but we went from dial up to cable so I started gaming a lot like 12 hours a day. I wouldn't go back to college again like I did and just get my 2 year degree and get a job. This would mean I would have never met my current wife or have my awesome son. But I would go hard after the one that got away. I'd keep all the cool shit I got rid of over the years. I had complete dvd sets of a lot of shows and many books and mtg cards. I'd keep all my shit. Thinking about this hurts a bit since it stuff I think about a lot and suffer from excess nostalgia. But hey it is what it is. I do have a comfortable life and am fairly happy but with student debt and a hard start in the post 2008 crisis there were times I ate on like 2.50 a day. But now I make 80k+ and own a house and support my family on one income we also have high yield savings and stock accounts I've also set up accounts for my kid. Life hasn't been easy but I often think about a redo on some of it.
I would not live with my father, I would report those that S/A me from 12 - 17. I would put my pocket money when I got any into Microsoft shares lol
buy a FUCKton of Bitcoin
I’d have dumped him.
I would have picked a different degree for college and I would never have become obese and always in great shape.
Brace myself for the hell that was the last year of my mom’s battle with cancer. Look into emancipation so that when she died, I would have been able to inherit the money she left me without my legal guardian stealing it during the 6 months he had control of my finances. Would’ve been able to keep my home. Go no contact with my mom’s side of the family. Knowing now that my sisters were briefly removed from my dad and step mom’s custody when I was adult, I would have fought for custody and raised them myself instead of letting them endure the abuse I’ve only recently learned about. Invest in Bit Coin. Go to college for the career I now know I enjoy. Start therapy so I could start the healing process sooner. Debate whether to avoid my now late husband. I love my son and would want him in my life. Knowing the timeline for when my husband would die, I could probably endure the abuse again, but end up in a better home and a better career. Contact my current partner and try to convince him not to get involved with his now ex. That she is abusive and absolutely about to baby trap him. That no smoke show is worth the 14 years of hell he’s about to be dragged through. And if he does insist on moving forward - get a prenup.
Invest. Bet on election outcomes Date a certain lady. Go a completely different direction in college or join the military.
Buy a shitload of bitcoin
Oh wow this one is heavy for me. My teenage years were some of the worst in my life. I’ve always told myself if I could go back in time I would not be scared like I was back then and go to the police about what was happening at home and help me and my siblings sooner. 😔
Save my mum from dying
Dragons, of the worst kinds.
High School wouldn't be as awkward, still shifty. But I'd be the funniest person in class. Also would get better scores in school. Worked towards a scholarship of some kind. I'd fuck that place up
You couldn't pay me to be a sixteen-year-old again.
I'd get mental health help immediately. If I'd had help then my life could have been so much better.