Your life's "save point"?

[AngeloMichael]

What if you could have saved a point in your life like you save a place in a video game? You could go back to this save point and start living your life again from that point on but knowing what you know now and potentially be able to change things.

Would you have a save point?
When would your save point be?
Is it ok to ponder on a save point now and then or is it too useless/self-destructive/idiotic to be thinking about and I should just live my life forward without thinking back?

Right now I'm thinking my save point would be December 25, 1987, 6:30 am, EST.

 

[Guest]

What if you could have saved a point in your life like you save a place in a video game? You could go back to this save point and start living your life again from that point on but knowing what you know now and potentially be able to change things.

Would you have a save point?
When would your save point be?
Is it ok to ponder on a save point now and then or is it too useless/self-destructive/idiotic to be thinking about and I should just live my life forward without thinking back?

Right now I'm thinking my save point would be December 25, 1987, 6:30 am, EST.

I've speculated about that so many times, and in general -- unless I could take my mistakes and everything I've learned back with me -- I don't think I'd go.

If, however, I could go back in time as me, now, as I am, I'd be back at January 2, 1982.

 

[AppleBiter]

June 7, 2006.

 

[AngeloMichael]

I've speculated about that so many times, and in general -- unless I could take my mistakes and everything I've learned back with me -- I don't think I'd go.

If, however, I could go back in time as me, now, as I am, I'd be back at January 2, 1982.

Does that mean physically as well? Just like going back in a time machine you take your whole body as well as your mind and just start living in 1982?

I'd want to go back knowing everything I know now, all the mistakes I've made, all the things I did right, but physically be the age I was and in the body I had in 1987.

 

[Guest]

Does that mean physically as well? Just like going back in a time machine you take your whole body as well as your mind and just start living in 1982?

I'd want to go back knowing everything I know now, all the mistakes I've made, all the things I did right, but physically be the age I was and in the body I had in 1987.

Well, in order to fit with the idea of the game, you'd sort of have to be -- in most games, you lose anything you've gained when you go back to the save.

And I'd be able to correct any number of physical mistakes I made then, too. I don't know if I could change anything else, but I could change what I did.

 

[cloudy]

December 4, 1987.

Isn't it weird that we all have specific dates, and remember them so clearly, even though it might be 20 years ago?

 

[Liar]

Since I like where I am today, and any other choice earlier in life would have steered it in a different direction it would mean that I wouldn't get to be here again, knowing and loving the people I know and love. So: No.

 

[TheEarl]

Isn't it weird that we all have specific dates, and remember them so clearly, even though it might be 20 years ago?

I'm gonna break the mould and say May to June-ish 2004.

The Earl

 

[AngeloMichael]

December 4, 1987.

Isn't it weird that we all have specific dates, and remember them so clearly, even though it might be 20 years ago?

Well significant events stick in your mind and most often the dates on, around, or during those events and they would be the most logical place to start over again since you remember what happened then more clearly then other dates.

 

[Guest]

Since I like where I am today, and any other choice earlier in life would have steered it in a different direction it would mean that I wouldn't get to be here again, knowing and loving the people I know and love. So: No.

I don't know that I would have steered that much differently. Mostly, there are questions I would ask, and perhaps some opportunities I would not have missed -- certainly a lot less wasted time -- but I think I could have arranged to be where I was when I was to get here -- not precisely here, but close enough.

Yes, Cloudy, I think there are some people who, for better or worse, have a particular point in their lives where they know things changed. I think of it as a sort of fulcrum, a center point.

 

[AngeloMichael]

For me, I guess part of the reason is a selfish nature. To experience the good times, and being with people I love all over again but with the perspective I have now on things.

And of course the other part is to change things, at least try to steer myself and others away from the bad times or limit their impact.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

July 22, 2003.

 

[TheEarl]

I don't know that I would have steered that much differently. Mostly, there are questions I would ask, and perhaps some opportunities I would not have missed -- certainly a lot less wasted time -- but I think I could have arranged to be where I was when I was to get here -- not precisely here, but close enough.

Oh, I know I'd've changed.

I probably wouldn't suffer from on-and-off periods of depression.
I'd probably be the same amount of slightly overweight that I am now, but with less muscle.
I'd still be good friends with a guy I now heartily dislike, and would probably be living with him next year.
I would probably be in a long-term relationship with a very good friend of mine.
I wouldn't have scars on my left arm.
I probably wouldn't be Wiccan.
I wouldn't have had some very interesting conversations with close friends of mine.
I might be responsible for really hurting a decent girl and condemning her to having scars on her wrists.
I wouldn't know some people on Lit as well as I do now.

I've thought a time about the Butterfly Effect from my particular save-point. I may not be precise on the date, but I'm precise about the thing I'd do differently.

The Earl

 

[Guest]

Well, the date I picked is 2 weeks previous to my mother's death. I don't have illusions about saving her, or changing that in any way -- but I was just beginning to ask her questions about her life and her past (and, of course, my own life). I'd have asked a lot more questions a lot faster instead of having the illusion that my time was...endless.

I don't know that I would change her death. That was her path, not mine, although it definately shifted the direction I would go from that point on.

In the aftermath there are many subtle things that I could have changed -- not sliding through my senior year, not staying with my stepfather, not giving up chances to go to college because I was so scared...but on the whole I would skip much else, even the miserable stuff, as long as I could keep the lessons I learned the FIRST time.

That's the rub, really. There are so many things I would not know and would not have if I had not traveled the path I did. Of course, I'd have made different mistakes and learned different things, but I don't know if those would be BETTER or just DIFFERENT. My life is one long learning experience, and I like it that way (although I wish there were a few teacher holidays sprinkled in here and there).

 

[NoJo]

What if you could have saved a point in your life like you save a place in a video game? You could go back to this save point and start living your life again from that point on but knowing what you know now and potentially be able to change things.

That's a nice idea for a sort of John Landis type movie.

 

[Honey123]

Oh my....

that point would be when I decided to work instead of go to college....but if I did go to college, my life would be significantly different and as I sit here, typing and seeing my gorgeous son playing in the living room I think, this is where I am supposed to be. My only point, my only turn in life.

It's like that fork in the road question...if you turned left, instead of right what might have happened? As much as I complain and think nothing I have done in my life has a purpose, I see him (my son) and realize what could be ever be better than that?

 

[AngeloMichael]

Oh my....

that point would be when I decided to work instead of go to college....but if I did go to college, my life would be significantly different and as I sit here, typing and seeing my gorgeous son playing in the living room I think, this is where I am supposed to be. My only point, my only turn in life.

It's like that fork in the road question...if you turned left, instead of right what might have happened? As much as I complain and think nothing I have done in my life has a purpose, I see him (my son) and realize what could be ever be better than that?

I think this question if much easier for those of us who don't have children and one of the most difficult for those who have had kids but still have "what if's".

 

[Aurora Black]

June 7, 2006.

 

[Aurora Black]

I wouldn't do it. Of course I've made many mistakes in my life, horrible events have happened, I made the wrong choices and lived to regret them. But no matter how bad they were, they led to my present life and have shaped me as a person. I don't want to go back.

 

[Guest]

.....

 

[minsue]

Since I like where I am today, and any other choice earlier in life would have steered it in a different direction it would mean that I wouldn't get to be here again, knowing and loving the people I know and love. So: No.

Ditto.


But if we're just looking for turning points in our lives, decisions made that changed where and who we are in life, my main regret would be Feb 2, 1997.

 

[impressive]

Ditto.


But if we're just looking for turning points in our lives, decisions made that changed where and who we are in life, my main regret would be Feb 2, 1997.

And mine September 21, 1985.

 

[TheEarl]

If, however, I could go back in time as me, now, as I am, I'd be back at January 2, 1982.

Careful with that one. Too much Butterfly effect would put me in peril two years later. You interrupt my parents for any reason and I'll be cross.

The Earl

 

[Aurora Black]

*leaves for all who want them*

 

[AngeloMichael]

I wouldn't do it. Of course I've made many mistakes in my life, horrible events have happened, I made the wrong choices and lived to regret them. But no matter how bad they were, they led to my present life and have shaped me as a person. I don't want to go back.

I think answers like this indicate a strength of character that I'm lacking. Instead of wishing for a second chance, why don't I take what I have now, who I am now, and move forward and make something of myself?

But I find myself more like the uncle in "Napolean Dynamite" always wishing to go back to 1982. But atleast I'm not dumb enough to hook a "time machine" up to my genitals.