If you could go back and start over, what would you change?

Too depressing to really think about or discuss. haha

I would have been a better son. Too much else and too personal that a therapist would have to pay me by the hour to divulge.

I would have started smoking and a cellar years earlier! Wife and I would have started the adoption process sooner too. More time with my grandparents. Other that that not much. Oh an maybe mined some bitcoin when I first heard about it

 Just one thing, that would have changed everything.

Mine would be centered around financial decisions that would make life much easier for me, and I would be able to help people that legitimately need help...and applied the spiritual lessons my grandmother tried to instill in me at an earlier age...she was a rock.

I picked a great wife earlier in life, so that certainly would not change, I would been more involved in my kid's life growing up...I have  great relationship with all three, but they made choices that had I wish I had been in a better influence upon them...trucking took me away from home a lot. 


Saying all that, considering the childhood I grew up with parents not involved in my life I am doing pretty well in spite of myself.


This is a thread where I "like" every post for obvious reason's, just too darned lazy.

Great question.

I don't think there's much I would change. I think I'd spend less time in tertiary education. 4 degrees is a little too much, I think.

I would not marry.

My father who died when I was 19, told me often that regret is the cancer of life. So be it.

I'd be more relaxed with my 2 oldest boys, less strict. We'd of had more fun together. Nobody gives you an owner's manual when they give you that first baby. You eventually figure it out (if you work at it and really try), but the first ones pay the price for your ignorence and inexperience. I really regret that.

I'd like superpowers. Nothing special. Just to fly and make stuff blow up when I wanted.

I thought on this one real hard and reflected on my life. Through all the stupid things I did and should have been a better son, brother, husband and father, the years I wasted being a raging alcoholic. I wouldn't change a thing. All those experiences have made me what I am today and I'm comfortable in my own skin and don't care what others think of me. It isn't high school for me anymore it's life and it took me a lot of years to figure it out.

I was still waiting for the one person who would change 90% of their life.

Good responses so far.

I'm quite comfortable with my life at this point, 66 years old, my family is good, my vocation is worthy and most days I enjoy it. If I changed anything in my early days, I likely wouldn't be where I am now, and that would be a shame.
Given that, what interests me more is contemplating all the different twists and turns in my life; those moments that didn't seem important at the time, but caused a slight deflection in my life's path. When I speak to young people, especially at High School graduation breakfasts and such, I try to let them know that it is not the perceived big decisions that will alter your life, but the many small choices you make that in the end, have a big impact. I encourage them to find a "touchstone" that anchors their values, so that when those "small" decisions are being made, they have something to fall back on.
I'm mostly thankful that my many foolish decisions didn't totally wreck my life; many of them could have! I'm more thankful it all worked out and I find myself with few regrets. Life is indeed interesting.