Hindsight meme

[feng_shui_house]

12 things to tell my 16 year old self...

Umm... I filled it out, and then I realized that if I told my past self the 12 things I'd written she would almost certainly have a far less stressful, more self-confident, less introspective and guilt-ridden life than I've had. It's very likely she would have worked in some office, possibly got married and had children, probably never would have written fan-fic or learned to photoshop for fun.

In other words, she wouldn't become me. I'm not suicidal. So all I could do would be hug her and tell her to hang in there.

Comments

[jekesta]

That's so the trouble I'm having with this meme, yes. It's all very confusing. I think probably I did the best I could and knowing other stuff might have made everything go even more horribly wrong. And I'd have to explain that I had to make sure that whatever I did I DID STILL watch BLakes 7, but what if by mentioning it I made myself into someone who didn't LOVE Blakes 7, or what if I didn't watch it at the right time or what if OH GOD EVERYTHING MIGHT GO WRONG is my point, people are being so CARELESS with wanting to tell themselves stuff. s dklfhsdlfjkd

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Yep. Exactly! One of my 12 points was to make sure I watched B7, but what if listening to the other things made me the kind of person who went out partying when it was being shown and I MISSED IT?!

I was tempted to at least tell my 16 year old self to get health insurance, but what if she got scared and decided to be a healthy person who went to the gym and didn't watch TV or sit her butt in front of a computer all day?

HORRORS.

[shimere277.livejournal.com]

I, too, wouldn't change anything about my past. But it's unlikely that my 16 year old self would have listened to a damn thing I had to say. How many times did the adults in your life tell you things which sounded like complete nonsense until you experienced them?

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Mainly they told me things which I thought were wrong, until later I discovered they were even more wrong than I thought.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

My 16-year-old self had way more problems that me, and not a lot of options at the time.

I'd let her know she did the best she could...

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

*nods* It's all very well to say 'do this', but looking back, *could* you? Mostly, no, you did what you had to do at the time.

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

There speaks a wise, happy person.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I think too much. :^) But I'd still rather be me than someone else. The world is full of someone else's, but I'm the only me.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

The only thing I could think of was "Don't put off going round to see Irene Gilbert. She might die tomorrow."

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Or go see something that gets torn down before you can visit it. There was a restaurant designed to look like a castle- inside and out- that I always wanted to see.