People often look back fondly on a particular time in their lives as the “best” time of their lives. Whether or not it’s true really doesn’t matter. It’s the perception. And often, while living through it, many people don’t realize that it is what they will come to regard as the best time.
So, to what age would you return if given the chance?
OK, if that question is too difficult, let’s modify it a little.
To what decade of your life would you return, given the chance?
(Anyone can play this game, you don’t have to be as old as OMWC or Fourscore! Everyone can feel nostalgic or wistful for a past time of their life.)
21. Easy question.
~22
I don’t mind 50 – I’m fitter than I’ve ever been; and I’ve still got all of my hair and very little gray.
The only thing I miss – versus teenage to 30-something – is that intensity of interest in my hobbies, girls, vacation, etc. I’ve just gotten so cynical and burned out since those days.
Hi LH.
Heh.
Unless Elspeth is bi.
Way to kill the vibe Mojeaux.
I’m still 19 in my mind’s eye.
I rocked a
mulletMacGyver hairstyle then. I was tanned, and sculpted. I could run three miles before breakfast, work a full day at the boathouse, then play capture the flag or soccer in the evening. Then play night games…19
15, if I can keep my present knowledge.
Same answer as Hank! Otherwise, without the hard-won knowledge, one would probably screw things up, or turn out o.k., just the same because there would be no hindsight that the decisions you are about to make are for good or bad.
This is a good answer. There’s lots you can do as a kid to make things way better down the line but you have to know they are possible and what actions to take. Otherwise you just go along clueless again and get the same result.
Around 25. There are a couple choices I might have made differently.
What’s the point going back if you can’t fix a few things?
That isn’t how this works. You don’t get to change the past. You just have to relive it. Otherwise you could just go back to the time you were born with all your knowledge and change your entire life.
In that case, there’s no point. There’s no way to say “this was the best time of my life” without future knowledge.
This, you would be like everyone except Bill Murray in Groundhogs Day.
That makes it like that stupid question, “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?”
Well, nothing. Failure is what makes it worthwhile.
I’m going to give you a billion dollars, but you can never fail again for the rest of your life in the exchange (I can’t say I anticipated such a what-if). I think you’re taking the money and enjoying the rest of your failure-free existence.
30-35
This. The runup to meeting my wife.
28 to 30
I would flash forward 5 years to when I’m retired.
to the Month Bud, 5 years,
I’d have to be 16 if I didn’t want to be bald.
Early 30s.
I’ve answered a similar question, before. If I could go back to 16 knowing what I know now, I’d now be the richest man in the world. I’d know about every major market move that happened since Black Monday. All transactions through an offshore account, of course.
Joking aside, I’d probably want to go back to my thirties, if I had a choice.
Twenty-five. I was in great shape, but just (barely) old and experienced enough to not be a complete dickhead.
At 26, I’m guessing it’ll be my early 30s. I’m focused on saving money now and should have 100k saved up by then.
The best summer of my adult life was when I was 21 and discharged from the Air Force. I separated in June and had no obligations until school started in August. I had separation pay in my pocket, a beautiful bride at my side and not a single obligation for two months.
Health-wise I was never better. Then I fell into the hell of intense college followed immediately by the birth of my kids. So my 20s-30s were in a haze of college, dirty diapers and toddlers.
My 40’s were probably the best although we are having a blast being retired in our 60s.
Life is best when you hit the end, battered and bruised, sliding in sidewards, saying, “What a ride!” Moderation is for sissies.
Alternately, “Life begins when the kids move out and the dog dies.”
Ouch, but very true,
Personally, I wouldn’t go back at all.
It’s never been better than today. Even with the challenges of today.
I’ll settle for 50.
44 if I’m looking for wayback.
Mid 90’s, Wendy and I were Beautiful, young and healthy, having fun with our kids and Life,
?Now is Just Fine…..
Early 30s. 50 is fine – I’m in better shape and I’m wealthier but like Lord Humongous mentioned, I’ve got a bit of ahedonia now.
I was more interested in things 20 years ago. Plus I wasn’t so pessimistic about the future of the country.
Please join me in strapping an onion on my belt and shaking my fist at the sky.
Today I learned at work that “equity” means “giving people what they need to succeed”.
Huh. ?
“Today I learned at work that “equity” means” giving people who aren’t white males whatever they want.
Have I mentioned how pleased I am that while my colleagues are sitting though a D&I workshop, I will be getting intensive handgun training?
Even if you have mentioned that, it merits mentioning it again.
The more you know. ?
So, you’re saying you don’t want people to succeed?
?
Equity means: Damn! I’ve lived here a long time!
If they’re not succeeding, you haven’t given them enough.
The trap is “knowing what I know now”. At some level, you assume it. Without it, it’s just Groundhog Day. Reruns? Meh.
Knowing what I know now? Probably mid-20s. Not excited to redo school, but Knowing What I Know Now? I’d do things differently, no question.
But then I never would have met Mrs. Dean, so maybe not.
“Reruns? Meh.”
Yes.
““What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: ‘This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more’ … Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: ‘You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.”
“― Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/34508-what-if-some-day-or-night-a-demon-were-to
Gay.
I’d guess that, if one screwed up royally, a simple restart might result in a better outcome. However, we’d need to consider if everything and everybody else kept the same trajectory. The degree to which pour circumstances affect our decisions might negate any improvement, assuming everything else stays the same. For that matter, If we went back and changed our approach, the reactions of others would change and the whole world would be a different place. Doesn’t really seem smart to go back in time and try to kill baby FDR or whomever.
21-30.
During college, and grad school before I had kids. I had a lot of good times with a lot of good people.
If I had to narrow it down I’d say 21-24.
I preferred the world prior to around 1999 or so. I have very fond memories from that era (all three decades, in my case) but I also did some heavy suffering. I’m going to just stay where I’m at and grumble about how messed up the world has become. That has it’s own merits, I imagine.
That was a decent period, though I’m glad I don’t have to relive it.
35, to rectify the one mistake I made in my life that I would.
But Heaven Knows,
You took took the Blows,
and di it, Your, way….
I always pick late 20’s. You still want to do the things of your youth, but now you have money to do them.
Older to me means easier to learn and get good at, as long as the body works, I do a lot more research than when I was younger, before I jump into a new endevour, usually Hobbies and sports like Disc, or Sailing,
You mean like how much dynamite it takes to blow up a whale carcass?
I re-found this because we just had a whale carcass at the beach near work last week.
Use enough dynamite there, Butch?
28
Health-wise: 18-25
Knowledge: About 55-on
Mom’s mom at 85: “Oh, to be 60 again.”
Grad school. I could have done a lot more a lot better and gotten much smarter than I did.
Seriously, this. I didn’t learn how to “do” school until after I graduated.
And, of course, the kids wanted nothing to do with my newfound knowledge. They had to learn on their own.
25 through 31 (1983 through 1989); some awesome times in Uni, Law School and grad school, and I had no health issues, and of course, at the end of that period I met the future Spousal Unit, so it was like the delicious nightcap to a very fine six-year-long meal.
Alternatively, my second year in college (1977/78; I was 19, and it was the best year by far of the four years, with some amazing people who I was proud and privileged to know).
None. I can look back at the fun, heartache, love, and experiences but I am in the best of my life.
Fake news
Boulder is a gun-free zone
Oh shit they’re going to blame Indiana again aren’t they?
That’s a tough one. I’d say 25, but my first set of houses/wife/kids was… difficult and ultimately not fun or fulfilling. 1.5/5, would not repeat. Things are pretty good right now (47), I could do and redo this for a while and enjoy it.
Now is the best time to be Alive, we are all still here, walking the Planet, that should be good enough for anyone, I’ll take it,
47 to 55.
Knowing what I know now? However old I was when bitcoin was like $1.
16 or 17 would work too, i think I could redo things in a way that hits the good stuff and avoids most of the bad stuff in the next decade or so.
If I had to relive it as is, maybe 25 when I was playing in a band and started dating my wife, or 31 when I got married and we had just bought a house.
I’d have sold the bitcoin at 100.00 and thought I made out.
My great-grandfather owned Taos Valley. Not the ski valley but the whole thing south of town from the Rio Grande Gorge to the pass above Angel Fire. He sold the whole thing to a “flatlander texan” for $0.03 per acre and, supposedly, had a great laugh about it. Today that valley is full of million dollar houses. Who got the last laugh?
Yeah, my grandpa owned a third of a huge three city block lot in the middle of the San Fernando Valley back in the fifties. He sold it for 800.00 and a ’50 Buick. He said he got the better of the deal. That dirt is worth hundreds of millions now.
It was Sherman Way to Vanowen, and Reseda to Vanalden.
45
when I could teach my son his trees and his stars all over again; if I could see the light go on in his eyes when he saw how a knot works; the pride the first time he ever hooked up a trailer and backed it by himself
You reminded me of something my daughter wrote.
I debated posting it but, WTF
Man it’s dusty in here.
That’s beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Glad I checked in this morning
Jeez? that’s a Goldmine of beauty, oops,
/Casa Del Sol, ’83
I was truly impressed by Taos. Not many places I can say that about.
I felt the Hum, before anyone mentioned it,
That was prolly just altitude sickness, LOL!
I climbed Big Mountains Back then , Taos was nothing, very cool place though, oh yes, many drunken parties and Gigs,
I remember the signs warning of altitude sickness as i rode into town. It was a while ago, but they had a number to call and everything. ‘Bout 20 minute before you get there.
Giggity
My grandpa and his brothers inherited, in the 1930s, a beach front block in Sea Isle City, NJ. Nothing was developed near by and, it being the Depression, they sold it for a couple hundred $$ each. I’ll bet the homes in that block are worth $40 million today.
So the Big 10 has one team left. Maybe that conference is a tad overrated.
All the girls say it’s really the big 4 1//2 in person anyway.
21…1986
I without foreknowledge I would only like to re-live a summer as a 4th grader, a week of high school, a weekend of college during summer break as a Jr., and a month when I met my wife.
There is not any time I would trade for right now even with all of the bullshit happening.
https://archive.li/6loen/a2cc08598d0ddc81e0155ba61e927d304dacfe2b.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.li/XHm4t/4cbf3e39b22d0c024d0d8f6cf6013c69801b3f60.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.li/pp1vd/ccc472417316cf4d6915561f228c3aa52ab6950f.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.li/bBDkQ/195965a7dc61b16943334c8dbc5766d94f23497b.jpg
NSFW.
I guess I’ll say 21-25, but if I could just have that one night to do over with my best friend’s “little” sister I might change that 18.
10 shot dead in Boulder CO.
No idea of what happened other than it was a super market. I already know how it will be treated in the news.
Suspect is apparently alive and being treated for wounds at the hospital.
They’re allowed to start covering that stuff again now that OMB is out.
I know it may seem like a cliche, but I love the time now. I have numerous found memories of years past, and apart from a handful of regrets (like not taking that girl up on the offer for one night of fun for fear of ruining a friendship, or meeting my wife earlier so we can have kids of our own together), I really do like the time I’m in now.
I’m wiser than a I was, enough to know what I don’t know. But, also enough to know the “experts” are full of shit, 99% of politicians are petty tyrants, and it’s folly to try and “improve” humanity their way.
While I can’t wait to move out of the People’s Republic of Kalifornia, the climate here makes up for a lot. My friends and family are all healthy and doing pretty well.
I’m incredibly lucky to have such an amazing wife, my stepson’s really cool, I have a job I really like, a good home, and a very comfortable life.
Now, if the question was what time would you want to go back to to do something different, I can think of a few. But, then, who knows what may have changed, and if it’s better having learned from certain mistakes or missed opportunities, as painful or frustrating as they were at the time.
I too like my age, but I’ve disliked current events for quite some time so I guess I wish I were older.
“but I’ve disliked current events for quite some time so I guess I wish I were older.”
Amen.
25 seems to be the one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRZMy4sBS8Q
Heh. I really dig that album!
I’d go back to when I was 4 or 5 years old. So I could watch Columbo episodes all over again. With genuine mid-70’s TV commercials.
Plus, this time I’d be really into the Ramones and everybody would be like, “Hey, look at 6 year old kid that’s wearing a leather jacket, greasy chucks, and sniffing glue! Crazy!” And then I’d be part of the cool punker crowd but I was only six or seven.
¡Lobotomy! ?
EG, this played on my local station’s retro show the other day:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8M_P_xX9Cmw
Round n round
Up n down
Through the streets of your town
Everyday I make my way
Through the streets of your town
Great tune. Jangly as hell. Thanks! Here’s some more jangle. https://youtu.be/eY5K2Tokois
Telling Noah about the flood.
At least one other person besides me thought of it and decided to play it. Hmm! 🙂
And again, congratulations on the world’s record for stuffing marshmallows up one single nostril. https://youtu.be/wR3xwENK7Jo
Uh, meant that you are Noah, sorry. (See forum?)
I knew I adored you for some reason. Here’s a random thing.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XT2tU_zAxuc
I would go back to when I was 32 and had just thrown in my lot with Mr Splosives.
Health was good (for us both), we looked good (pudgy but comfy), and the job was still interesting, good work at which I excelled. I had just taken on the role of step mom, but it was mostly enjoyable.
Wiser now, but the health has been really cramping our style lately so it would be kinda nice to be in my early thirties.
I’ll put up a throwback avatar for a couple of days just to capture that snapshot in time.
Greetings from Mycopia, all you Glibs out there, What’s shakin?
How is it morning already?
?
Something about the Sun,
Bless my eyes this mornin’
the Sun, Is on the rise once again,
Good morning, Yu & Sean! Predicted high in the mid-60s today, but cloudier than yesterday. At least the rain isn’t due until Thursday. So far – knock wood – the traffic report is clear for my commute.
Good morning.
Good morning to you, too, UCS!
So much trouble in the World,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H78yhjo4m7U
Counterpoint?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZrBYve31d0
Relevant ?
I’m good at my current age.
Thank you for not choosing the painfully obvious Cher song.
I’m not *that* much of an asshole.
https://6abc.com/camelback-mountain-poconos-sullivan-express-chair-lift-accident-pocono-mountains/10441438/
Ouch.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/man-carries-toddler-san-diego-zoos-elephant-habitat-76576233
People are stupid.
Late to the party but
So, to what age would you return if given the chance?
16 probably… preferably knowing some of the things I know now… like gym/fitness stuff for example …
Then again I would settle for anything 25 and under
23…back when the hangovers weren’t so hangovery and I wasn’t quite so liable to throw my back out trying to reach something in the backseat of my car.
I honestly don’t know to what age I’d willingly return. Too many variables – can I keep my current knowledge? Can I change anything?
If I had to relive as is, it would be relatively recent, with current job and current Mr. GT. If I could keep current knowledge and change my actions at will, I might go back to high school and make some different decisions.
…and for the recent relive, after we bought our current house. Not going back without Tranquility Base.
Yesterday I opened my windows because it was almost seventy out and the house had been closed up all winter.
I forgot to close them and the house got cold over night. 🙁
I hope you have a comfy sweater or sweatshirt, and I hope no bugs got in.
Yesterday as I was walking down a hallway at work, a bug dive-bombed me and hit me right on my mask. When I got back to my office and took off the mask, that damn stinkbug was still on there. I flushed the bug and threw away the mask.
Damn stinkbugs.
Well, the screens are still intact, so anything that big would have had to come in through the door when I was taking the cardboard to the curb.
I see that Biden is scheduled to meet with our esteemed *cough* governor today. Too bad there’s no severe weather predicted for the area. Very, very localized severe weather.
He is ?
/prays for a Tsnumai-nado
MOTHERFUCKER!
Windows updated at the end of work yesterday.
Twice this morning when trying to print something, I got the BSOD. I’ve never gotten the BSOD on this PC before. And now they put a frowny face on it? I’d pistol whip the fucker who did that, if’n I found him.
whaddup doh ?
After an update, Windows doesnt like my anti-virus (AVG). For the 1st time since WinXP I get the BSOD at least once a week. With frowny-face.
I’d return to my fifteenth year. Good grades, many friends, fresh off an exchange program, scouted by Universities for baseball prowess. Then things happened. As they like to say about Venezuela – a bit of bad luck.
Easy, my 20s. Simpler times, having lots and lots of fun and sex and the chance to have a long, slap-heavy discussion with my younger self about future decision making. (Yes, I know I’m breaking the rules, but meh.)