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Obviously, people in this section have seen a TON of stuff, seen LOTS of changes and have seen the world change drastically from technology, to rights for women/minorities, to language, to all kinds of stuff. But I recently watched a movie where a much older couple gets turned back to teenagers and you see how they interact with not only being young again but navigating how things are now, and it got me thinking, how would you react? Take this scenario:
You wake up tomorrow and you are 18 again. You have the same memories, knowledge, same universe, same time, only thing that has changed is you are an 18 year old all over again and can't change it. Apart from just having to deal with being a young adult again how would you take it? Would you be depressed? View it as a new lease on life and use it to experience things you didn't before? Keep in mind you still have all your memories from the age you are now, you're just in your body as it was at 18. I can imagine it would be very awkward for any children/grandchildren you may have for sure, but otherwise think you could get used to it and also being able to retain all the knowledge you had before definitely could be a great benefit.
Just something I thought may be quite an interesting discussion.
Oh to be 18 again. I HOPE I would NOT have all my current aches and pains!
I would work as hard as I used to at 18, but make sure I invested better than I did. How, I'm not sure. I'd also make sure NEVER was without health insurance as at one time several serious medical issues forced me to go through the retirement and savings before I ended up actually living under a RR bridge in my late 20s.
I'd run as much as I could as I have trouble walking now, so I'd enjoy running.
I'd make sure that I'd never gain the extra weight I did in my 40s, and am working on losing now.
I'd integrate myself with the younger set better as many of them I can't stand now.
I'd have fewer responsibilities, but only to myself. I'd make sure I WAS more responsible to myself. I'd love myself more. Just as I am.
I would run for political office to see if I could actually make a difference.
I'd volunteer more than I have and be more congenial to others as life is too short.
If my future was to remain the same, to repeat itself, I'd plan better for it, knowing what I do NOW.
Is that what you are looking for?
Thank you for this stroll down assumed dream lane.
The zinger for me in the OP's scenarios is still having all of my past memories, big minuses and, I would hope, some pluses. Clearly I am going to be waaaaaaaay different from my 18 year old peers because of this factor, almost like a covert Martian among men.
Though I am now seventy-nine I got into the computer era (by accident) in the mid-70s, and watched it develop and become public, and was part of that as a consumer too; so in respect to computers and their subsequent development for personal use I was lucky to be part of the long slow transition to the present day. The world of distant, depersonalized, superficial relationships and no privacy that has been a result of it, though repugnant was and is no surprise having been on the train ride toward that destination for decades.
I would miss the more frequent, less guarded world of rough and tumble personal interactions. The dumbo world of pondering and fretting over the meaning of a texting "relationship" vs the face-to-face warmth and abrasiveness of the real world right in my face. There is also my early background of having to find things out the slow and dedicated way of delving into books for research or pursuing people to help me, inform me, talk to me. Google and Wikipedia give instant information, but I think for the majority of people they are brain-killers in the not so long run. You are presented with something, you do not discover it. And to a great degree the rough and tumble of discovery is missing from life now, and the benefits it can inculcate in a person. Too many people seem passive, immature and downright stupid with few redeeming graces except those bestowed by an ever-manic application of the eraser of political correctness.
Judging from C-D forums American life is very heavy on noli me tangere, despite the contradictory emphasis on physical display and acting out. A major turn off for me.
The biggest pluses would my own experience as a volunteer companion with terminally ill people, and a clinical interviewer of such men and women; and finding a way of living with the turmoil and conflicts that brought up. It was a major turning point in my life....and provided new perspectives.
I left the U.S. - as an older person - to remove myself from the world that the OP would have me join again as an eighteen year old. I would hope to be able to draw on my previous life and not get sucked into the national political and racial tensions of the current U.S., and to begin journeying out into the world intellectually and physically at a much, much earlier age than I did in my past life.
A LOT more Prayers ! Seeking guidance, wisdom from those who experience I could benefit from Before making any decisions. As with random acts of kindness, would pass this wisdom on to those who would ask-not give advise before being asked.
Acts of kindness I Try to do for all the blessings/kindness that has been given to me throughout my years; also am reminded I have 2 ears, 1 mouth ! Recently read the actress, Diana Rigg, did not give her actress daughter any advise as she had not been asked !
Stories, it would be most helpful, interesting to have learned the lives of my family, neighbors when they were in their youth,
I'm 31, but there have been major and substantive changes since I was 18.
I think the most significant has been the ubiquity of the smart phone. While cell phones were out then, they were pretty much just phones only and still not widely adopted. When I first used an iPhone, I was completely amazed. I think it was the iPhone 3G, and my uncle had one. I have some cousins about ten years younger than me - none particularly techie - but they had iPhones when they were in grade school.
If I were to wake up tomorrow and was 18 again, knowing what I know now, I'd probably do the following.
1) Leave this part of Tennessee immediately and go to a better college. Given current experiences, I'd probably work for a year to establish residency. I'd probably go to Clemson because I like upstate SC. Potentially the Tampa area too. Much better economy, more going on, and more of a can-do attitude than where I am. There is great outdoor recreation here, but aside from that, it's just not a good area.
2) Major in something health related. I work in IT. IT jobs cluster in major metropolitan areas. I majored in economics, and while it suited me, you really need to go to grad school to do anything technical with it. Healthcare jobs are especially portable and can be found virtually anywhere.
3) I would have done anything to have kept one romantic relationship going. Though that's been almost ten years ago, there's not been anyone like her before or since. I've had other relationships, but never came close to marrying and have been pretty much single for the better part of two years now. I have no desire to have children, but being alone for this long and at my age is a bit wearing.
4) Would have kept my weight down and kept lifting more seriously. When I was in high school, I was a dedicated weightlifter and came close to some state records for my age/size range. While I am not huge by any stretch, I am overweight and work a sedentary desk job. It is difficult to keep the weight off.
5) I would dedicate myself to going to grad school. No one in my family has ever gotten a graduate/professional degree. While it's by far not too late for me now, it doesn't feel like it would be useful in the working world and it seems to difficult to fit in working on-call, often over 40 hr/week job.
6) Dedicate more decisions to my own choices. I've made a lot of decisions out of the desire to be close to my family or had to take job offers out of financial desperation. While family is worth a lot, I feel it has cost me things too. I don't like living here in my hometown, and after being gone for the better part of five years, I'm not really a part of life here anymore, even after being back for a year. Outside of my family, most of my lifelong friends have children with no time to get out or have moved on themselves. Younger adults are leaving the area. There is almost no social scene in this area for people in their late 20s/early 30s without kids, and who are not churchgoers. I wasn't a super big fan of Indianapolis, but there was at least a lot more going on for me socially/personally.
I've been spending more time with one of my cousins and his girlfriend and hanging around the college lately. Still, being in your early 30s hanging around a bunch of 20 somethings looks desperate. Which I am apparently because I spend so much time chatting with random seniors I don't know too!
I've moved a lot and been a lot of places, but purely out of economic necessity and have never lived anywhere that was a real choice. I was desperate both times I moved.
It's easy for all of us to sit here and Monday morning quarterback decisions we made years ago. When I started college in 2004, finance was a good choice of major. What happened when that cohort graduated in 2008? They got slaughtered in the job market. There was no reasonable way to know what was going to happen. People who working at Bear Stearns or Lehman Brothers had no clue they were going to get wiped out. Even locally, the economy was much better in the early 2000s, and still hasn't recovered fully from the recession.
We go off the information we have at the time and I think I did reasonably well given where I started, what happened, and what I could have reasonably known then.
The zinger for me in the OP's scenarios is still having all of my past memories, big minuses and, I would hope, some pluses. Clearly I am going to be waaaaaaaay different from my 18 year old peers because of this factor, almost like a covert Martian among men.
Though I am now seventy-nine I got into the computer era (by accident) in the mid-70s, and watched it develop and become public, and was part of that as a consumer too; so in respect to computers and their subsequent development for personal use I was lucky to be part of the long slow transition to the present day. The world of distant, depersonalized, superficial relationships and no privacy that has been a result of it, though repugnant was and is no surprise having been on the train ride toward that destination for decades.
I would miss the more frequent, less guarded world of rough and tumble personal interactions. The dumbo world of pondering and fretting over the meaning of a texting "relationship" vs the face-to-face warmth and abrasiveness of the real world right in my face. There is also my early background of having to find things out the slow and dedicated way of delving into books for research or pursuing people to help me, inform me, talk to me. Google and Wikipedia give instant information, but I think for the majority of people they are brain-killers in the not so long run. You are presented with something, you do not discover it. And to a great degree the rough and tumble of discovery is missing from life now, and the benefits it can inculcate in a person. Too many people seem passive, immature and downright stupid with few redeeming graces except those bestowed by an ever-manic application of the eraser of political correctness.
Judging from C-D forums American life is very heavy on noli me tangere, despite the contradictory emphasis on physical display and acting out. A major turn off for me.
The biggest pluses would my own experience as a volunteer companion with terminally ill people, and a clinical interviewer of such men and women; and finding a way of living with the turmoil and conflicts that brought up. It was a major turning point in my life....and provided new perspectives.
I left the U.S. - as an older person - to remove myself from the world that the OP would have me join again as an eighteen year old. I would hope to be able to draw on my previous life and not get sucked into the national political and racial tensions of the current U.S., and to begin journeying out into the world intellectually and physically at a much, much earlier age than I did in my past life.
I am with this poster.
Am happy with where I am now in life and any thing I would change if I went back would be so significant that it would change where I am now. The little nickering at the edges I would do if given the posted scenario would not result in much change except for
A better appreciation of people in my life. Seeing Mama and Daddy again as they were then.
I was a aerospace machinist. You still can be that today but getting and having a job is much harder. For a young guy who isn't college material today is pretty much screwed. Construction trades are out, illegals have completely taken that over.
Getting in on the gravy train of a government job is the hot ticket today but everyone realises that and therefore it is nearly impossible.
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