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Stuff 30 Folks In This Online Group Would Do Differently If They Had Their Current Knowledge When They Were 15 Years Old
Being a teenager naturally comes with quite a few challenges. For instance, one of the most prominent 20th-century psychologists Erik Erikson considered the teenage years to be a major stage of a person's development where one has to learn to be independent, search for a sense of self and personal identity while actively exploring their values and beliefs. In other words, a lot of things are happening all at once.
Inevitably, in the midst of these wild explorations, we're simply bound to make at least a few stupid decisions that we're gonna regret (or kind of regret) later in life. You know, once we're all grown up and much smarter than we were back then, right? I'm sure that every single one of us could come up with at least one thing we've done or didn't do back when we were teens that we'd sure be glad to change.
Recently, 31k Reddit users delved into the topic of going back in time and doing things differently after a member named u/TheIconicNZ shared a question that read "Your consciousness is sent back to when you were at age 15, and you maintain all of your current knowledge and experience. What do you do?" Bored Panda has compiled a list of some of the best answers found in this viral thread with over 77k upvotes, so here you go!
More info: Reddit
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#1
1. Good dental hygiene - floss, brush twice a day always
2. Make exercise a part of the day, it is harder to get this into routine as you get older. Plus the fitter you are when you’re younger, the more it will tide you through when older
3. Continue pursuing things that I find interesting, even if I’m not (and will never get) good at them. It is wonderful to have things to enjoy for the sake of it
4. Be nicer to my parents, especially my mum. It is a lot of responsibility, and they did their best
5. Take feedback and criticism in stride, and not let every negative thing make me question everything
RELATED:
#3
I take my little brother to the hospital because he has a tumor that no one knows about.
I tell my Dad that he shouldn’t sell his company because we end up homeless.
I buy bitcoin.
I live with my family and appreciate them.
I go to an IHOP many years later and find the waitress, I ask her on a date, hopefully I can keep both my families this time.
Seule Forever 3 years ago
I'm sorry you had to live through so much pain and regrets... I hope you're doing ok.
#4
Don’t date my first girlfriend. Try to maintain friendships while moving. Take college more seriously. Buy Bitcoin. Hug my grandparents more often.
#5
Everyone saying what they’d do better while I’d be having a total mental breakdown. Can you imagine going back to living with your parents? Waking up at 6am to get a bus to be in class at 8am? Taking exams again? Having to study all over again? I have nightmares about this. Please no, no, I’d rather stay an adult please.
Seule Forever 3 years ago
Being a teen in high school is stressful, juggling between homeworks, studies, social life, family life and possible bullying! And now add social medias, cyberbullying and a freakin' pandemic, teens these days have even MORE stress!
#6
Honestly just the knowledge that lots of the sh*t 15-year old me was agonizing over and worrying about ultimately didn’t bring about the end of the world would help. I’d know which things to stress about and which ones I could let go of.
#7
Take better care of my teeth.
Looking back, I wish it had been explained that cavities were growing holes in my teeth, and not something invasive, like a bacteria.
#8
I was in my freshman year of high-school, I'd go back and relive those years being completely and totally myself like I should have done way back when.
#12
Well, knowing me, I don't make the stupid choices I made for the past 31 years. But also knowing me, I would make totally different stupid choices. Because I'm human. Just because I could now avoid the traps I had fallen into back then, this does not mean I would not fall into different traps. But hopefully the sum total would be a better life.
I know there are career changes I would make. There are financial decisions I would do a better job with. For instance, on the day I graduated college Apple stock sold for 15 cents a share. If I had bought $5000 worth of Apple stock that day, I could sell that today for 4.6 million dollars. So there's that.
Doris Bennett 3 years ago
I'd keep all the Apple stock I had in '86 and not sell it when it doubled.
#13
I’d live in existential dread that somehow, somewhere I’d mess something up in the chain of events that led to me meeting my wife and the subsequent birth of my children. Life without my children would destroy me. Utterly.
Neil Bidle 3 years ago
Best comments for sure. No matter how rough the path we take, it always leads to where we are now so unless your life is super crappy and you have nothing to lose, changing your past could be a terrible idea.
#14
Warn my grandma that she has cancer that will kill her in 9 years because they caught it too late.
#15
I wouldn't be too afraid to report my father to the authorities. I wouldn't live life in fear of his hands. I would fight back like I never did.
#16
People here are getting rich or saving lives but I'm 100% using this as an opportunity to deploy all the clever responses I came up with hours later in response to various people.
I still have a lot of them memorised thanks to my brain's love of reviewing stupid things I've said and done over the decades late at night so I feel pretty prepared.
just another bookish gay 3 years ago
i never thought of that but that is such a good idea! every single time i've thought of what i should have said way too late...
#17
Be single and lonely for a while. Holy sh*t do I not want anything to do with most high schoolers.
#18
Tell my parents I was depressed and go through therapy/get medicated.
Ask that girl out. She's a wonderful person and she absolutely has a crush on you.
Talk to more people and stop pushing them away. You won't disappoint them and they won't hurt you.
Fix your relationship with your mom. She will have cancer later so make the time count.
Learn Viet. Your grandparents will get sicker and you'll want to be able to talk to them before they leave.
Stop worrying about embarrassing yourself. For every person that may think you're cringy for your interests, there'll be another who'll think they're cool.
Stop playing CSGO all the time and explore those hobbies that you always wanted to get into. I know you're depressed but you'll regret wasting all that time on a game you hate.
Things will get better.
Suzanne Haigh 3 years ago
I am constantly reading "things will get better" but when? I have hoped this for over 40 years, they have not yet.
#19
All the fun of these hypotheticals vanished the moment my daughter was born.
I know that realistically I'd never be able to recreate the exact circumstances to have the same child, but I'd have to put everything I have into trying... doing otherwise is unimaginable. It would be years and years of stress and planning and dread knowing that I'm essentially doomed to fail at the only thing that matters, the one thing I'm trying desperately to achieve. Along with the constant feeling that I'm being an idiot to pour myself into something that will never work, and the guilt of even contemplating giving up.
And there's basically no good ending, eventually I either have a child who's clearly not her and try desperately not to burden them with my grief, or I have a child who might be her and I spend the rest of my life struggling to deal with thoughts of "Is it really her?" without my preoccupation messing her up, or I give up and live feeling like I abandoned my daughter and erased her from existence. And god, my poor wife in all of this.
Basically, "What if you got to re-do your life?" used to be a fun thought experiment. Then I met the love of my life and adopted a couple cats and it got more emotionally complicated. Then I had a perfect baby girl and imagining this scenario became like imagining hell.
#20
Lose fat, start lifting weights and running, play less video games, sleep more.
Jason Boling 3 years ago
It's as easy to give old you hard things to do as future you and as easy to not do them in the present.
#21
I’d want to tweak a few things. Hit the pricks who messed with me. Kiss the girl when I should’ve. Spent more time with my old man. Little things
#22
I wouldn't go to University, possibly travel more and spend a bit more time deciding the direction I want to go with my life.
#23
Go straight to my room, blast Powerman 5000 from my humongous CD player, and bury my head in my pillow while I cry. High school was a living hell for me and living with my stepmom was a living hell but after I came to terms with my situation, I’d find my dad (who died last year), hug him tight then go and do the same with my grandparents.
Then after that I might cut down a bully or three. I’ve gotten surprisingly good at insults and standing up for myself in my old age.
Oh! And have a DQ blizzard. I wasn’t lactose intolerant at 15 and holy sh*t do I miss blizzards.
#24
Get some bitcoin, put a lot of effort into regularly working out, learn professional cooking skills so I can whip up fancy food for myself
#25
Focus on high school a bit better, try and keep in touch with my best friend at that time a bit better after she moved across town, talk with my dad more about family and stuff, apologize for being a little sh*t in middle school more. Figure out my major a lot faster.
#26
First I'd break up with my girlfriend at the time.
1. It wasn't a good relationship, both of us did some fu**ed up s**t that only inexperienced people would
2. I would be 25 in mind and she'd be 15
M O'Connell 3 years ago
I think I would do the same. It was a good relationship, but it went on for far too long, and we both missed out on experiencing different things with different people.
#27
Oh man, I have an whole plan for such things.
Background, I've been disabled since I was 4. T1 diabetes and being on the spectrum sucked combined with back then (90s) learning disabilities not being as "accepted" at my schools so they tried to forcibly correct me and it went horribly wrong.
So, thing the first: High school. I wouldn't let it stress me out and push me to the breaking point like it did. I almost died in HS because things got so bad with my T1 diabetes and it spiraled so far out of control that it almost took me out. No. We're not fu*king doing that s**t. The walk for the diploma isn't worth it. If I fail, I fail, we make this up in community college. FU*K high school.
Thing the second: Fight harder to get your disability benefits. My mom had representative payee status over me and it kinda fu*ked everything up, so I had to go to work for a retail job that didn't give a singular fu*k that I was diabetic. I ran my sorry ass into the ground so hard that I'm still cleaning up the mess almost 10 years after I got fired. If anything, THIS is what utterly fu*ked me and THIS is the thing I would change the most.
(I finally got my benefits...way too late into that job. And by the end of it I was making so little at that job that I was 90% living on disability anyway. I should have quit and salvaged what I could. But I am dumb.)
Thing the third: Fu*k the job once disability is done, go the fu*k to college. Community college would have been easily affordable and where I live there are plenty of grants and waivers. I should have taken advantage of them. Again, I am an idiot.
Fourth, and definitely not least: SEE A FU*KING DENTIST. That's another thing older me had to clean up and it wasn't pretty. I'm in a good place now (bless my SO for helping cover the dental bills because disability sure fu*king didn't) but man, I could have saved myself a TON of hurt down the line if I wasn't so scared of the dentist.
I post this in hopes that maybe someone is currently in my situation, reads this, and knows to get the fu*k out or advocate for oneself before things get so bad that older you is going to have a right mess on their hands to clean up. It's not fun.
Mariza 3 years ago
As I lie on my sofa in a super dark place only a year in to ASD diagnosis, being fired for being ASD and feeling utterly stuck... know that you've reached one person. I hear you. I needed to hear this. Also being targeted by a neighbour and starting the road to an injunction. I'm terrified. But thank you
#28
Save more money. Take better care of my teeth. Not eat as much junk. Not date people who were just a waste of time. Not worry as much. Appreciate the irreplaceable things more. Not say some mean/wrong things I said. Choose a different career path.
#29
Move out as soon I become 16. My parents were very toxic and harmful for my mental health.
#30
Try to convince my dad to short airline stocks in about a year. Gamble a lot on sports.
What do you think ?
Ozacoter 3 years ago (edited)
I would hate being back. When I was young I had hopes for a good future, worked hard, was healthy, a good kid etc. If I knew then that i would end up misserable ill and in pain I wouldn't have any will to keep trying. I am glad that I was naive and happy for some years.
denzoren 3 years ago
I would take more chances if I could go back. I'd pay a little more attention at Uni and probably change majors. I was always astronomically bad at flirting, expressing how I feel and telling who was actually interested in me...so I'd correct that. I'd spend less time on other people and more time on myself.
Foxxy (The Original) 3 years ago
Not give in to pretty much every boy that wanted something from me is the biggest thing I would change. I would also make better financial decisions and actually save money.
Daria B 3 years ago
Me, I'd try to find ways how to go "back to the future". I don't want to relive what I already completed. It's like playing a game, progressing really far, and then you turn it off and realise when your last save was. No, thanks! What I WOULD love to do, however, is meeting my past self. I'd conduct an experiment. I'd give her a smartphone (they didn't exist back when I was 15) and I'd see whether it works or not, and whether we can stay connected across time-space. Knowing myself, I'm sure she'd be excited to collaborate.
Thorfin Wolfsbane 3 years ago
The funny thing about all of these is that the answers presuppose the world would unfold exactly the same regardless of their different decisions. Any changes, no matter how small, could drastically alter the future (except the ones about brushing teeth and exercising), not to mention even if everyone did everything the same, the future could still be very different.
Daria B 3 years ago (edited)
You were downvoted, but I agree. Also, some of these don't take into account that other people might have no knowledge of what's inside their heads, so to them, they're just a little teen with no experience about life. So, "telling your parents to do this instead of that" might need careful planning. The manga Erased deals with this topic very well. Satoru, the protagonist, in the eyes of everyone else is nothing but a kid, so he has to plan carefully to discover and prevent a serial killer commit the murders that occurred in a different timeline.
Load More Replies...
Carmen Sandiego 3 years ago (edited)
I can't think of anything I want to change. Lucky me! One or two things, maybe...
Raven DeathShade 3 years ago
Well, you're Carmen Sandiego. I have a hard timr thinking of anything that could possibly make you cooler.
Load More Replies...
Laura Chapman 3 years ago
This time around when I meet my husband, we both get into therapy for childhood wounds. Maybe that way I still wind up with the same children, BUT he and I can also stay together. When our third pregnancy ends in miscarriage, try again right away instead of letting my biological clock run out. Get my ADHD medicated so I don't mistake my own sexual dysfunction for not wanting him. Confess my kinks sooner so that we know what we each are into instead of hiding things from each other that ultimately we both would have enjoyed. Tell him I'm proud of him more often. Insist on couples therapy instead of divorce. If I do all this maybe I can still create the same children I have now but keep my best friend (my now ex-husband).
Vicky Nicholas 3 years ago
A lot of these posts about not changing a thing so they could ensure they had their kids, need to read Replay by Ken Grimwood. A little dated now, but covers a lot of those thoughts and other posts included.
Jessica Aubé 3 years ago
I would tell myself to go ahead and kill myself like I wanted instead of listening to bull s**t toxic happy people telling me to have hope things will get better .. they did not.. they got worst .. and continued to get worse ..
Barbara Vandewalle 3 years ago
I would not let people make me fearful of doing things that were unknown and would take me away from home.
Ally R 3 years ago
There's a few things I'd tell my 15 year old self - help Dad to lose weight and get his heart checked. I'd go to a different college to find my now husband and probably wouldn't go to university but go and pursue a career in childcare. I'd also insist on getting family members to have health checks and get myself put on meds for add.
Aine 3 years ago
Knowing what I know now, 25 years later, I'd kill myself like I wanted to, before life got in the way. I'd know that the fleeting moments of happiness aren't worth it, that it won't get better, just worse, and that the pain is there to stay and become unbearable. I'd do it before I felt responsible for anyone or anything.
OhForSmegSake 3 years ago
I would've stayed living with my Dad, not moved in with my mother. I would've taken that university offer on the other side of the country instead of staying here for a useless boy.
Heather Menard 3 years ago
I would have quit school at 16 get my GED. Go to community college. Then go to regular college on what my mom made so I wouldn't have to pay back student loans. I would have saved every penny I made and by the time I was 18 I could have bought a house.
Leigh C. 3 years ago
Although I would never regret my daughter. I would warn myself that my mom is a narcissist who will always counter everything I say and that her issues with me are her issues, and that your therapy will be all on you to seek and fund. I would tell myself to tell the counsellor and the school my step-dad is an alcoholic who gets angry easily. Be myself in school and stop acting like a tough girl or a diva, and take school more seriously. (I'd probably have to go back further. So many regrets) I would definitely warn myself to not get too chummy with the high school drop out at the bus stop. Don't even ask the time. Just check it before you leave. Keep going to production set after-school class and don't miss a day. Take Fine Arts and not Graphic Arts.
Data1001 3 years ago
15 is way too late in the game — most of the damage has already been done by that point, lol. I would love to go back to 7 or 8, though — bringing with me the knowledge and confidence and wisdom that I have now.
Data1001 3 years ago
Then again, decades after graduating, I still wake up every day so happy that I don't have to go to school any more! ;-)
Load More Replies...
First Name Last Name 3 years ago
I was doing ok at 15. And tbh here I am near 60 and the specific things I would change if I could go back are less than 5, and only one of them would affect anyone other than me.
Raven DeathShade 3 years ago
If I went back to when I was 15, I don't think I'd do anything different; it was just two years ago. I met the love of my life's parents a few months before my birthday, and I met him officially on Christmas Eve. I wouldn't do anything different. Now, if I were to go back to when I was 12, that would be a much different story.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
I'd tell 15-year-old me what I told her at the time: "Head down, work hard, it isn't forever, we're outta here soon..."
Don't Look 3 years ago
I'd keep one friendship in particular going - and tell my controlling cousin to go get screwed (because that cousin was the reason the friendship ended)... and then I'd set about dealing with all the things that I needed to deal with to live the life I could have had.... and I'd stop being such a pushover.
Ozacoter 3 years ago (edited)
I would hate being back. When I was young I had hopes for a good future, worked hard, was healthy, a good kid etc. If I knew then that i would end up misserable ill and in pain I wouldn't have any will to keep trying. I am glad that I was naive and happy for some years.
denzoren 3 years ago
I would take more chances if I could go back. I'd pay a little more attention at Uni and probably change majors. I was always astronomically bad at flirting, expressing how I feel and telling who was actually interested in me...so I'd correct that. I'd spend less time on other people and more time on myself.
Foxxy (The Original) 3 years ago
Not give in to pretty much every boy that wanted something from me is the biggest thing I would change. I would also make better financial decisions and actually save money.
Daria B 3 years ago
Me, I'd try to find ways how to go "back to the future". I don't want to relive what I already completed. It's like playing a game, progressing really far, and then you turn it off and realise when your last save was. No, thanks! What I WOULD love to do, however, is meeting my past self. I'd conduct an experiment. I'd give her a smartphone (they didn't exist back when I was 15) and I'd see whether it works or not, and whether we can stay connected across time-space. Knowing myself, I'm sure she'd be excited to collaborate.
Thorfin Wolfsbane 3 years ago
The funny thing about all of these is that the answers presuppose the world would unfold exactly the same regardless of their different decisions. Any changes, no matter how small, could drastically alter the future (except the ones about brushing teeth and exercising), not to mention even if everyone did everything the same, the future could still be very different.
Daria B 3 years ago (edited)
You were downvoted, but I agree. Also, some of these don't take into account that other people might have no knowledge of what's inside their heads, so to them, they're just a little teen with no experience about life. So, "telling your parents to do this instead of that" might need careful planning. The manga Erased deals with this topic very well. Satoru, the protagonist, in the eyes of everyone else is nothing but a kid, so he has to plan carefully to discover and prevent a serial killer commit the murders that occurred in a different timeline.
Load More Replies... Carmen Sandiego 3 years ago (edited)
I can't think of anything I want to change. Lucky me! One or two things, maybe...
Raven DeathShade 3 years ago
Well, you're Carmen Sandiego. I have a hard timr thinking of anything that could possibly make you cooler.
Load More Replies... Laura Chapman 3 years ago
This time around when I meet my husband, we both get into therapy for childhood wounds. Maybe that way I still wind up with the same children, BUT he and I can also stay together. When our third pregnancy ends in miscarriage, try again right away instead of letting my biological clock run out. Get my ADHD medicated so I don't mistake my own sexual dysfunction for not wanting him. Confess my kinks sooner so that we know what we each are into instead of hiding things from each other that ultimately we both would have enjoyed. Tell him I'm proud of him more often. Insist on couples therapy instead of divorce. If I do all this maybe I can still create the same children I have now but keep my best friend (my now ex-husband).
Vicky Nicholas 3 years ago
A lot of these posts about not changing a thing so they could ensure they had their kids, need to read Replay by Ken Grimwood. A little dated now, but covers a lot of those thoughts and other posts included.
Jessica Aubé 3 years ago
I would tell myself to go ahead and kill myself like I wanted instead of listening to bull s**t toxic happy people telling me to have hope things will get better .. they did not.. they got worst .. and continued to get worse ..
Barbara Vandewalle 3 years ago
I would not let people make me fearful of doing things that were unknown and would take me away from home.
Ally R 3 years ago
There's a few things I'd tell my 15 year old self - help Dad to lose weight and get his heart checked. I'd go to a different college to find my now husband and probably wouldn't go to university but go and pursue a career in childcare. I'd also insist on getting family members to have health checks and get myself put on meds for add.
Aine 3 years ago
Knowing what I know now, 25 years later, I'd kill myself like I wanted to, before life got in the way. I'd know that the fleeting moments of happiness aren't worth it, that it won't get better, just worse, and that the pain is there to stay and become unbearable. I'd do it before I felt responsible for anyone or anything.
OhForSmegSake 3 years ago
I would've stayed living with my Dad, not moved in with my mother. I would've taken that university offer on the other side of the country instead of staying here for a useless boy.
Heather Menard 3 years ago
I would have quit school at 16 get my GED. Go to community college. Then go to regular college on what my mom made so I wouldn't have to pay back student loans. I would have saved every penny I made and by the time I was 18 I could have bought a house.
Leigh C. 3 years ago
Although I would never regret my daughter. I would warn myself that my mom is a narcissist who will always counter everything I say and that her issues with me are her issues, and that your therapy will be all on you to seek and fund. I would tell myself to tell the counsellor and the school my step-dad is an alcoholic who gets angry easily. Be myself in school and stop acting like a tough girl or a diva, and take school more seriously. (I'd probably have to go back further. So many regrets) I would definitely warn myself to not get too chummy with the high school drop out at the bus stop. Don't even ask the time. Just check it before you leave. Keep going to production set after-school class and don't miss a day. Take Fine Arts and not Graphic Arts.
Data1001 3 years ago
15 is way too late in the game — most of the damage has already been done by that point, lol. I would love to go back to 7 or 8, though — bringing with me the knowledge and confidence and wisdom that I have now.
Data1001 3 years ago
Then again, decades after graduating, I still wake up every day so happy that I don't have to go to school any more! ;-)
Load More Replies... First Name Last Name 3 years ago
I was doing ok at 15. And tbh here I am near 60 and the specific things I would change if I could go back are less than 5, and only one of them would affect anyone other than me.
Raven DeathShade 3 years ago
If I went back to when I was 15, I don't think I'd do anything different; it was just two years ago. I met the love of my life's parents a few months before my birthday, and I met him officially on Christmas Eve. I wouldn't do anything different. Now, if I were to go back to when I was 12, that would be a much different story.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
I'd tell 15-year-old me what I told her at the time: "Head down, work hard, it isn't forever, we're outta here soon..."
Don't Look 3 years ago
I'd keep one friendship in particular going - and tell my controlling cousin to go get screwed (because that cousin was the reason the friendship ended)... and then I'd set about dealing with all the things that I needed to deal with to live the life I could have had.... and I'd stop being such a pushover.
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