If you could do it over again…
I wanted to answer this prompt…but the harder I thought the more I wasn’t sure what I would do over again. I didn’t want to be cliche about it and I didn’t want to be predictable or superficial…I thought about making it funny, I google searched to see if anything else had been written on the topic, but in the end I decided to take the question to twitter. The answers I got were too good not to use:
jordyliz I’d stay true to myself and my OWN heart before compromising it for someone else.
wyndall93 I would have gone to Paris when I had the chance.
momlissa I would have slept in much more prior to kids…
Savingmoneyll Studied abroad in college
Lau3turtle I would have told someone, instead of keeping silent.
realNJhousewife Everything and nothing.
American_Wife I wouldn’t have taken Chemistry for majors in college.
eticklethomas Nothing. At all.
sadiewindham Studied fashion design (instead of majoring in history) and taken more pictures of my time in college.
Janezwords thought this over. Just one thing. Be braver faster.
mommablogsalot Dated way way way less – looking back, it was such a waste of time.
LaneWils I’d still take care of my mom but I’d make a life for myself too.
fatboyfat It would probably involve avoiding spots and stripes in the same outfit.
pam_tastic I wish would have invented Twitter.
knitmyrhino I wouldn’t do anything to change my life! What if that little change took my little man out of it?
Krilper held out for money!
JackieCross Oh so many things! But one things for sure I’d never change having my kids!
Tristina_Wright Look a helluva lot harder for that suitcase full of cash. ;)
mymamaruns I’d skip the starter home.
the_wordgirl i would have taken more time to enjoy the things i was doing–instead of trying to speed thru it…and i would have spent more time being grateful for the things that really tested me.
kade22806 marriage BEFORE kids- 5 yrs & 2 babies later, we still aren’t. Highly unlikely we’ll ever have enough $ to do so now! Oops!
CathyIsReal Hubby & I would have stayed living in San Diego when he was discharged from Navy instead of coming “home” to Maine!
devacoach I’d have bought property in Vancouver 20 years ago!
mistylovesvamps if i had my life to do over again, i’d have a c-section… both times.
Jeanettelynn84 I would have slept a whole lot more before having kids! Didn’t realize how precious it was until it was gone!
Amberppm I wouldn’t do it differently. If I took back my mistakes, the good things wouldn’t exist either.
wifedontcook I would have taken more chances, more risks.
badasian I’d have drank more after turning 21, before developing an alcohol allergy. #truestory
buriedwithkids wait to have kids and party a little more. Oh and be a rock n roll groupie.
SaraPlaysHouse Lived alone (really alone) for at least a little while.
KatetheOwl finish my MA before I had kids……
jordyliz I wouldn’t question my gut, I’d go with my instincts…and I’d stay true to myself and my OWN heart before compromising it for someone else.
BeccasCrazyBoys Not a thing. :)
linnysvault I would finish college & save $ to go on a honeymoon lol.
mommyneedsvaca not been so naughty in high school & listened to my mother
Nirvana_Mamma I’d do what I wanted to do more, than what other people wanted me to do.
Lubbins25 I would have majored in something else.
MyMessyParadise finished school on time and not wasted my time with losers.
jwilliams057 Forgive faster and say I love you more.
peachoutofwater I wouldn’t have spent every dime we had on CA real estate in 2006.
foolery If I had my life to do over again I’d find out who’s in charge of that do-over button. I plan to need it A LOT.
TCreativeBlogs dump boyfriend sooner, buy microsoft & starbucks stock, travel.
Freelancer4Hire I would work harder in highschool to get college scholarships.
Now it’s your turn!
Choose a prompt, post it on your blog, and come back and sign Mr. Linky. Be sure to sign up with the actual post URL and not just your basic blog URL (click on the title of your post for that URL). For good comment karma try to comment on the three blogs above your name!!
The Prompts:
1.) If you could do it over again…
2.) If you were put in “time out”, where would you want to be placed and why?
3.) Steppin outside the box (describe a time when you went way out of your comfort zone)
4.) A long drive…
5.) Describe the first date you went on in a boy’s car.
{ 84 comments… read them below or add one }
What great answers! I have to admit thought that I’m on the “wouldn’t change anything because it all got me to where I am” group. Wouldn’t it be interesting, though, if we could see where we’d be if we could change something? I’m excited to participate for the first time this week and I look forward to reading some great posts!
Yes! Managed to be one of the first few people… more on top of it this week.. haha.
I’m with Stacey – I’ve argued ‘everything has gotten me to where I am’ but I still went for prompt no. 1 – after all, despite that there are times when we’d erase the past if we could still be the same today…
I love the idea of having others “write” your post for you with all of their great answers. So fun. I would definitely go back and sell all of my real estate at the height of the market. Then I’d be a millionaire instead of a grouchy landlord trying to get her tenants to pay on time. If I had only known.
These are excellent! My favorite was @pam_tastic’s. Hopefully she would have opted to invent Twitter… without the whale fail.
So many things I would love to do over, but only if it wouldn’t change the outcome of who I am and what I have now!
But what great answers!
I like knitmyrhino’s response… I wouldn’t want to change anything, either! I couldn’t risk losing my family!
I love that you took it to twitter, because like you, I had nothing!! I really like some of the responses though. Especially the ‘everything and nothing’ I guess that sums it up for me!
Sorry! I messed up the link! Its supposed to be this one!
http://thebristolproject.blogspot.com/2010/08/writers-workshop-repeat-post.html
I tend to want to redo the little things, as I feel they are the things that we really have some control over. I linked up to a post about a rough day with my sweet daughter yesterday–one that I tried to do over.
LOL. Just read the comments above. Very funny.
Linked up this week. I linked as 13 and 14. Go me! Not. 13 is the wrong blog post. 14 is the correct one. Sorry about that!
I learned a lot of lessons making mistakes…so I guess I’d keep them. Crap.
I loved this! Excellent take on the prompt – you could so totally make a book out of answers to this and other Twitter questions – Life According to Twitter – or something like that!
Promise to put me on the dedication page?
HIndsight is a terrible thing! I have no regrets.
I congratulate you for your novel take on the topic.
HIndsight is a terrible thing! I have no regrets.
I congratulate you for your novel take on the topic.
The only reason I got my post is because of my take on life this week—my anniversary! To agree with Gailikaa…I have no regrets!
I thought of doing this one too. But, I guessed no one would have wanted to read a 500 word post about why I would have moved to Detroit so I could have met and married Eminem. He’s so misunderstood. So I wrote about being awesome, like I always do. Feel free to come by and enjoy. Seriously, it talks about how I let a random male stranger mount me in public. Good stuff:)
I would have driven better as a teenager. It terrifies me to think that my oldest is close to driving and I am not on any anti-anxiety meds YET. He already seems to have gotten my “Go Fast” gene. ACK!!
Interesting idea, taking it to twitter. Ah the benefits of social media!
Ha – very creative! And a very good way of using Twitter!
That’s great that you did “crowd sourcing” as my social media guru husband would say. I loved the answers; real life.
SO much fun! and? I got to give that old boyfriend a little ego boost! As a smug married lady, my thrills are all vicarious…
What a cool way to tackle this prompt. You really are brilliant, no wonder why BlogHer wants you so badly.
Jen’s Rock N Roll groupie is my favorite!
Love this. I wish a bunch of high school students could read it and see that what they are doing right now is shaping their life.
I tend to say that I wouldn’tchange anything b/c it would change the course of my life and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere but now. But, that’s a total lie. LOL I figured out something I’d change that I think would still put me here. Blogged about it before and always get way too many questions I don’t feel like answering, so I chose a different prompt. LOL
Those are all really great answers! If I had to do something over again… it would probably be learning to keep my mouth shut. It sure gets me into trouble some times!
Although I’ve made a ton of mistakes in my life, I wouldn’t want to change anything that’s happened because I’m so in love with how it is now. Who knows where I’d be if things didn’t go exactly as they did. :)
Great idea! I love twitter posts. This is a hard, emotional question for me to answer, but I think I would have waited to have children until I was older if I could do anything over again.
This post prompted a whole lot of stories that I had completely forgotten about! (I had supressed a lot of ex-boyfriend stories!) :)
This is my first week!
And those were great answers!
If I had to do it all over again… would I risk it? Do I dare touch something of the past? http://www.ournextchapters.com
Neat way to answer this prompt! Mine would be: I would have studied more in college instead of studying my social life so much.
I thought it was interesting that @mistylovesvamps wanted c-sections. I only had c-sections and wish I would have tried natural the first time. Interesting.
I’m still trying for a “do-over.” As in, quit my job (waaaaaayyyy too young to retire!) and take some time to stop and smell the roses.
This week’s prompts were so good, but I just had to go with number 1.
I’d say if I had to change anything, I would have listened to my mom and chosen a different career path!
I worry about changing too much and having not learned what I did, but I could definitely go back and sleep in more before kids, like so many other people are thinking!
I did the same thing…made a list of regrets and then went….what the heck, this could go on forever…..LOL I love the twitter…that’s the way to go!!!!
I am with mommablogsalot on this one. I dated way too much in high school and did unnamed things I should never have. The worst part is that I never partied a lot so I could not blame those mistakes on the boos… *blush*
I always answer the do-over question the same way.
I wouldn’t change a thing!
Today, I broke my trend, and stepped out of the box. Sometimes, you just gotta dream a little. :-)
Love that you took the question to twitter :)
I just celebrated the 9th anniversary of my 29th birthday, so I was in a reflective mood. It was interesting to figure out the “big” choices I made. Of course, my one regret will always be that I didn’t go to Paris after I got laid off by United Airlines after 9/11. I was getting a severence, living with my then boyfriend/now husband so had little expenses. But I didn’t want to go alone and none of my otherwise laid off friends wanted to go. I should have just bitten the bullet and gone! Stupid me.
Hey — you got your own little PostSecret type thing going on!! Great idea … wish I’d thought of it .. or hadn’t quit Twitter.
I have to add my own 2 cents as if I did have a Twitter account: Would have had more value for myself and gotten out of bad relationships much earlier .. or never had them at all.
If I could do it over again I would have not let relationships that were “over” drag on longer than they should have.
I chose the “long drive” prompt, but now these Tweeples have given me lots of inspiration for the “do over” prompt!
First and foremost, I would have realized a lot sooner that being weird is a lot better than being “normal.”
Those are great answers! I have sometimes thought I woulda liked to live really on my own and have my own car and job and stuff but then I come back to reality and think no not really….being single was fun at the time but now that I have a family I would NEVER want to go back to that.
There’s some awesome responses there, but my favorite was “Everything and nothing”…sums it up very nicely.
So after I read this list of answers I have about a million things to add to mine. Great thoughts!
I loved reading everyone of those. Some made me laugh while others made me think. That’s always the best way to get something!
I loved joining in the writer’s workshop this week. It was fun thinking back on things!
I’ve been enjoying this all from the side lines- first time player!
Cheers!
I like the idea of you taking it to twitter and seeing what other people had to say about the subject…fun little survey!
Your use of twitter was creative. I’ve got to go follow you.
I would have let loose a little bit more in college. I would have traveled more before kids.
Interesting and hard to think about what I would change. I like the answer “Everything and nothing.” Just one thing…if I didn’t like the do-over, could I go back to the original way?!?!
Oh, I think about this almost every day.
I would’ve stayed in pre-med.
Looking forward to reading this week’s prompts . . . and I found myself nodding in agreement to lots of the above “If I had to do it overs.”
:)
Check it out….I actually posted my post on THURSDAY like I’m supposed to
#YAYME
Love these weekly challenges Kat (even if I suck at meeting deadlines)
Lets have a prompt about tattoos shall we????? PLEASE??? I REALLY wanna brag about my ink ;)
Loved this! I feel so special that I am in your prompt! Ha! That is because I am ALWAYS on Twitter. Need an intervention…
I feel like these should be compiled into a book! Or maybe a daily calendar so I can be reminded of what I should/shouldn’t do so that I don’t have to want to do it over (as much). Love it!
Wow, you got a lot of responses. Very interesting to read what people would do over again, especially when confined to 140 characters.
What would I have done differently? Depends on the day. Lately, that means EVERYTHING. Every. single. choice.
So many people had great answers! I was being a lame-o and still have myself convinced that “there’s nothing I’d want to change about my life!”
what an awesome idea. I will join in next time. Today I am enjoying my girls first day home in 2weeks!
Posted!! Great prompts this week, it was hard to pick just one.
ga! This one was hard for me to write about. One of those things that makes you cry as you write it.
Would have waited and searched more before purchasing our first home, now we are stuck in one that doesn’t fit our family!
Is wyndall93 really LC from the Hills? LOL!!!
Love this post…asking Twitter was a good idea! : )
I love the prompts. I often need help and inspiration to come up with ideas to write about so this is awesome. Also, if someone could help me out, I managed to turn my whole blog post into a link to this blog when I added the button….not that I object to linking to such a great blog but I don’t really like the idea of my entire blog being a big link.
I I did it all over again, I would just have more confidence in myself.
I would have listened to my dad… About everything.
That is so cool that you were able to share the twitter feed in that format! I would just add that I would not have let boyfriends treat me badly and been more confident about my worth.
I love this! Twitter is the bomb. Did I just date myself by saying that?
Great prompts, what I great idea to use your Twitter stream!
I talked about what I would change if I could!
I made the list. Woo!
I have to agree with one from above. I wish I would have lived alone at some point before marriage. I went straight from my parent’s house to my husband’s house. No gap… no fun.
I love the way you did this!!! I don’t think I would change anything. I have no regrets. Just always moving forward from here.
I guess I don’t even want to take the time to wonder what I would do differently. It has all, good and bad, led me to where I am now.
Very fresh way to blog it…asking Twitter. Great idea!
I believe that things happen for a reason so I don’t really have anything in life that I want to do over. I love my mistakes, love them!
Nice selection of prompts!
LOVE this idea! Really cool reading all the different ‘If I chould change somethings’. Thats what I blogged about! Thanks for another great WW.
Hi! I’m here! The Linky doesn’t show up on my Blackberry but you can find me here: http://mommylebron.wordpress.com/2010/08/06/writers-workshop-steppin-outside-the-box/
I loved reading some of the other links. Thanks for the prompts and for the link up. Off to read more of the blogs!
I also wrote on this prompt this week.. really interesting answers you received from twitter.
I would have put more thought on financial security for my old age. Too late now.