What do you wish you had known when you were younger? [Archive]

gimmethesimplelife

3-4-12, 11:24pm

Here's something I was thinking of today - what I wish I would have known when I was younger.....I wish I would have known that so many things were going to change and I wish I would have sooner cultivated coping skills to deal with rapid change....What about the rest of you out there? What do you look back on and wish you would have known at a younger age? Rob

Stella

3-5-12, 12:33am

That my value as a human being was intrinsic, not dependent on what others thought of me.

Wildflower

3-5-12, 12:50am

That everything would turn out ok.

I had a very difficult childhood and teenage years. I was raised by alcoholics. Life was so difficult from my earliest years that I had no idea I would someday be free of it all and actually be happy...

gimmethesimplelife

3-5-12, 12:51am

That my value as a human being was intrinsic, not dependent on what others thought of me.Wow! I wish I had known that one, too. Knowing that now makes me grateful to be in my mid fourties......

kally

3-5-12, 12:55am

to believe what men say over what they do. And not to waste time on totally useless relationships. Ah, if I could have those years back again.

ctg492

3-5-12, 4:04am

At turning the ripe old age of 51 this week...Just about everything I wish I had known back then. I have a saying now: Will "it" make me happy? Will "it" improve my quality of life? I can apply that to many topics/purchases, I wish I would have asked those questions years ago. The biggest one for me today however is: Each person has control over their own life, I can not control, change or cause Their situation. Lastly, my time here is short, so I have to make the most and best of what I am given and be happier.

goldensmom

3-5-12, 6:36am

I’ve thought about that question and have discussed it with friends. I like who I am now and decided if I knew anything differently when I was younger that I’d not be the person I am today. When I think back, if I knew then what I know now, I’d have been a lot less adventurous, I would have been more cautious and not have experienced a lot of the things that I have experienced in life. I think I knew what I needed to know at the time I needed to know it and am satisfied with how it’s turned out.

razz

3-5-12, 7:06am

Gregg

3-5-12, 7:21am

Everything I know now.

peggy

3-5-12, 8:38am

That I really would get older. That experiencing something is a whole lot different than standing on the sidelines and judging others on their experience.

Alan

3-5-12, 9:45am

That the old adage "and this too shall pass" was true.

LDAHL

3-5-12, 10:25am

I wish I hadn't overestimated the power of positive thinking and underestimated the power of compound interest.

IshbelRobertson

3-5-12, 11:30am

That it would be nice to settle down in one place for more than a couple of years at a time!

Anne Lee

3-5-12, 11:32am

I wish I would have saved more for retirement and started the No S Diet earlier.

JaneV2.0

3-5-12, 11:42am

That it is entirely possible to make a good living doing something you enjoy. Even if almost no one does. That Sisyphus should never be your role model.

Mrs-M

3-5-12, 12:15pm

Everything I know now.

domestic goddess

3-5-12, 12:39pm

That if I didn't take care of myself when I was younger, I would regret it when I got older.

peggy

3-5-12, 3:33pm

I wish I hadn't overestimated the power of positive thinking and underestimated the power of compound interest.

:laff::laff:

ApatheticNoMore

3-5-12, 5:03pm

How bad the corporate world and corporate life was, I might have had the good sense to avoid it at all costs :)

Jemima

3-5-12, 7:56pm

That it is entirely possible to make a good living doing something you enjoy. Even if almost no one does. That Sisyphus should never be your role model.

I couldn't say it any better than that. Trying to cram what I really wanted to do with my life into retirement doesn't seem to work very well, although I expect there will be many good and rewarding days ahead.

ApatheticNoMore

3-5-12, 8:02pm

But to have it all figured out by the time you need to figure that stuff out, late teens, very early 20s - when you didn't have the knowledge to have it all figured out then. Exactly the point of the thread I guess. If only I had a true adult experience of the world to work from .... long before I had that experience.

Gregg

3-5-12, 9:41pm

Aww hell, I'm not sure I have an any adult experience to work from yet! Sure it would have been fun to know what I know now and flip back to....high school. Not only would I have been much more suave on the dating scene I would have owned most of the world by the time I was 25. Move over Zuckerberg. But it isn't the destination, its the journey. Without it nothing else matters so I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out so far. Although I will admit LDAHL's compound interest does seem like really simple math now...

Kestra

3-6-12, 9:57am

I just don't know about this topic. Yes, I have regrets and did things that I now know I shouldn't have done. I'm so much wiser now and there's many years of that coming, let's hope. But everything has turned out so wonderfully. My life is better than I ever could have imagined in my teens and 20s, and just getting better. If I had known more then, I most likely wouldn't be in the place I am now. And that's something I don't want to contemplate.

CathyA

3-6-12, 10:33am

I wish I had known that I was, indeed, loveable and that I wasn't the dumb, ugly, contemptible little wretch that my father said I was. I also wish I hadn't had a fear of my mother dying during my whole childhood and would have known that she would live to be 87 years old and she would later drive me nuts and I wouldn't like her at all. :)

herbgeek

3-6-12, 1:08pm

I wish I had known that just because my parents thought I was loud and outspoken (for not whole heartedly agreeing with everything they did and said), it didn't mean I was unworthy. I wish I'd known I could be myself, and some people would like me anyways. I wish I'd known that I'd find someone worthy of sharing my life with, and I wouldn't have thrown myself at unsuitable men.

CathyA

3-6-12, 2:52pm

herbgeek.......I know what you mean. I didn't really have a concept of "self". And I thought I had to go out with anyone who asked me. It didn't occur to me that I should like them. I was just doing what they were telling me to do. I feel fairly good about how I've raised my children. And I keep hearing in my head something I heard long ago "Everyone has a purpose........even if its to serve a horrible example." Maybe my good parenting came from seeing bad parents!

pinkytoe

3-6-12, 4:13pm

Priorities certainly change as one gets older so anything I know now might not have applied but I certainly made a lot of mistakes. Regrets are pointless but if I knew then what I know now I would have:
Stayed far, far away from negative, toxic, unpurposeful people or situations.
Honored my health and my inborn talents.
Found my community and made it home for the long haul.
The things that really matter in life are very simple - love, family, friendship, home, community, a job well done and that will never change.

Rogar

3-6-12, 6:58pm

I am pretty pleased with my current state, but did come up with a few wishes were I able to have magical powers to have earlier knowledge of things.

Many of those plain, robust girls with good senses of humors that my friends were always trying to set me up with would probably have made better companions than the sports car variety of girls I tended to go after.

My parents were usually right.

Life is short regardless of your age...do the things that need to be done.

All adults are ex-babies. That ex-baby can come out at all different ages.

Friends tend to come and go, but family is mostly permanent.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it could still be a skunk.

Sad Eyed Lady

3-6-12, 8:29pm

On the other hand, sometimes I agree with Bob Seeger in that "I wish I didn't know now, what I didn't know then".

Bartleby

3-7-12, 8:39am

I wish I had known how to open my heart to all the sweet young things who were in love with me back then.

heydude

3-8-12, 12:47am

Nothing.

The more you learn, the less you know.

It is good to be ignorant and inexperienced. Otherwise, you probably wouldn't have made it this far.

Spartana

3-8-12, 12:27pm

Nothing.

The more you learn, the less you know.

It is good to be ignorant and inexperienced. Otherwise, you probably wouldn't have made it this far.

Ha Ha - True! When I think of some of the things I did when I was younger I'm glad I had no idea what the outcome could be or I wouldn't have done them. And I probably wouldn't have had as much fun either :-)! But sometimes, even though I knew I shouldn't do something because I knew it was the wrong course for me, I did them anyways believing that it was the right thing overall to do (mainly because everyone told me it was the "right" thing even if in my heart and head I knew it wasn't right for me). So I would say that if I had known then what I knew now, I would have followed the path that was right for me irregarless of what others told me and even if it meant going against the tide of social standards.