I pulled my ear buds out, took a drag of Mountain Dew and turned to the guy I was working with.
"Hey Eric, if you could go back to the 80s, would you?" I asked.
He turned down his music and thought about it.
"Would I be the age I am now, or the age I was then?" he asked.
"Either... you decide," I said.
"I'm not sure..."
"I would," I said. "I would want to see some of the concerts I never got the chance to. Yeah... and they would all be at the Roxy or the Whiskey..."
We bantered back and forth about what concerts we might take in while back there. He went with U2 and The Police performing together. Can't argue with that logic I thought.
Then I wondered if -- since I would be back there anyway -- there was anything I would change.
I posed this question to Eric. He just shook his head and said, "Dude... haven't you seen 'The Butterfly Effect?'"
"Yeah okay... but what if you wouldn't get all timed punk'd?"
I've been thinking about that all day. Would I change anything if I had say a week back then?
Yeah, I think I would. There's a few things I would consider doing differently. Oddly, few of them are things that regret doing... but rather, things I regret not doing. That's got to be telling.
The things I would change all involve people too. That must be double telling...
What's strange is that it's not that easy to decide what I would change. If it was a matter of popping back and changing just any old thing, any moment, that would be easy. Zip! Back to Cindy Kranz's front porch after Homecoming junior year (or was it sophomore year) and get that kiss I wanted so bad but never did... Zip! Back to the day I threw a baseball glove at Pat Kelly's head because he wouldn't give me my glove... Zip! Back to that same day and throw a glove at his head after all. The little turd deserved it... Zip! Back to that day in the summer of my junior year of high school when I couldn't give my parents a good reason to let me stay with my best friend's family in California to finish my senior year instead of moving to Oregon...
Change any of those single moments and who knows? Even the big one at the end wouldn't have changed my life completely. But a week? Man, that's tough... that's enough time to change a relationship completely.
Well, anyway... I'm not sure where this post went. It started with such promise... I'm still thinking about though, so maybe that's enough.
12 comments:
I've spent too much time thinking about that question. Yes, I'd go back - to almost any year. Some years are worth correcting, some years are worth living through again. Later, I'll probably regret wasting my time blogging a four in the morning. ;)
I'd never want to do it all over. Life is about learning from your mistakes. However, I've often considered "going back" to high school for a day, armed with the life skills I have now.
tshsmom~
I agree. Things would change to much and effect my life the way it is right now and I wouldn't want that to happen. It would be fun to go back in time, to highschool, and really know how to deal with those people that tried to ruin me. There's one girl in particular that I would just love to get my face up in hers and tell her that after highschool, she's gonna be a big, fat zero so she better enjoy the so-called "popularity" she has right now.
EXACTLY my thoughts Sadie!
Zip! Back to when Heather Murray told me that my first love (whom I was still currently dating) had kissed her the day before...I would slap that bitch...I'd slap her hard
I agree with Sassy. I wouldn't want to go back and just relive the same things over. I'd want to know what I know now.
I'm with you, Shawn. The things I would change are not things I regret doing (okay, maybe one or two), but things I regret NOT doing.
Maybe I would've listened to my parents and broken up with that boyfriend when they "suggested" it (instead of sneaking around behind their backs to see him...)
Maybe I would've payed more attention in school.
Maybe I would actually GO to college.
But then I'd be a different person, in a different place, with a different life. And for all the bitching and moaning I do...I really like who I am.
So that's a tricky question. Good post, Shawn. Now you've got me thinking, too.
Although I could definitely see where I should have made smarter decisions, like Laurie, I'm perfectly happy with how I turned out, so why roll the dice? Maybe I'd fix little things, like slowing down in time so I didn't run over that squirrel in 1987.
hey, sorry, but I have a technical question that maybe you could help me with...how did you get your comment line to say "_ Rowdies had to chime in" I have tried to create my own, but can't figure it out.
Hey Slade... It's not hard, but if you haven't played with HTML coding it can seem that way.
First go to your Blogger Dashboard and click the template tab. There will be a bunch of code for your blog's template in the big box. You need to scroll through that to near the bottom where you'll find a part that looks like this: (!-- Begin .post --) except that the brackets will be shaped like < at the start and > at the end. A few lines down from that you should see a line that looks like this: (p class="post-footer") again with the v brackets. The lines right after that control the 'comments' line of text at the bottom of your posts. If you go through these lines, you'll find: <$BlogItemCommentCount$> rowdies had to chime in except it will say "comment" instead of "rowdies chime in". You can change the text to read whatever you want but keep it real short or it will go wonkie on you. Then click on the 'Preview" button below the box to see if it worked right. If it did, hit the 'Save Template Changes' button, If it didn't, then hit the 'Clear Edits' button.
I'm not the best teacher since I only know enough to get in trouble, but let me know if this works for you...
There's plenty of things that I'd change or erase if it wouldn't affect the final outcome. But everything, good and bad, has led me to where I am. If it had happened any differently, I'd be a different person with a different life.
I have often wondered what it would be like to be another person for a day.
No, you don't want to change the past. Say you go back and fix your mistakes and bam!, you get hit by a car five years ago and you're dead. Think of it that way and you won't regret too much. ;)
Post a Comment