Things happen for a reason in my book, so i wouldn't really change anything, except stay in school. Homeschooling was nice, except i didn't want to do the schooling for a while. Figures.

Oh, and don't rely on those friends you made in middle school. They won't stay by your side for long, and the guys that your alleged "friends" told you to stay away from, actually turned out to be nice and friendly.

One more thing. (Or things) Look into the autistic spectrum very early. Encourage your parents (re: heavily nudge them in the correct direction) to get you help at an early age, and change schools. The one you are in now (then?) is very complacent. Also, do not obsess over every girl you meet for the first time. Take it slow, and think with your mind, first and foremost.

Turns out i did have some things to change, i guess.

 

I'm not sure there's a lot I can tell my younger self - I think I learned as much, if not more, from my mistakes than the things that I got right. Sometimes the lessons have to be painful ones in order for them to really take hold.

 

Kid me: Don't stop drawing. Keep your Beast Wars toys somewhere safer than a toybox, in about 12 years you're gonna wish you could find more than just random parts.

Early teens me: Baggy clothes are fucking whack, get clothes that actually fit you. Get guitar lessons, and get a Tele instead of a goddamn B.C. Rich Warlock as your second guitar.

15-18 year old me: Don't be so oblivious. You can still have fun and do well in school. Be a little smarter with the money from your summer job. Otherwise you're doing OK.

19 year old me: You're going to start getting really, really sick soon, it's going to turn out you have Crohn's disease and it's not something you can just soldier through like an idiot, go to the doctor sooner rather than when you're on death's door.

23 year old me: That surgery that seems fucking terrifying, that you're sure is going to end your life as you know it? 1) Get the full colectomy right off the bat, the defunctioning ileostomy won't pan out, and 2) You literally shrug it off when you wake up from it anyway and take to living with an ileostomy like a duck to water.

 

Pull out.

 

Drinking which will turn you into an alcoholic by 18 and mutate into an addiction to sleeping pills. Is a poor way to cope so don't get started. Also, don't mix anti seizure drugs and addiction. That shit will mess you up, brain cells don't grow back.

 

Advice to 18 year old me.
Don’t let the peer pressure get to you. Hook-up culture and casual sex, especially in the gay community, is overrated, and just because everyone else is doing it does not mean you have to. You may feel left out, but don’t let it get to you. Just because you are gay doesn’t mean sex is everything.

 

There’s too many mistakes I made that I would wanna rectify.

 

Just be yourself. Don't worry about trying to be a tough guy type. Wear that Depeche Mode shirt more often and don't worry about what people say.

Also, ask her out. There was a different "her" every year from 7th grade through college, and all I did was pine for them from a distance. Ask her out. She may not say yes, but you'll never know if you don't ask. You won't be thinking about it years later singing "oh God my chance has come at last/but then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn't ask."

 

To my 15 year old self: it's going to be fine, trust me.

To my 25 year old self: it's going to be fine, trust me.

To my 35 year old self: it's going to be fine, trust me.

To my 45 year old self: it's going to be fine, trust me.

To myself last Monday: the Mega Millions numbers for tomorrow are going to be 1, 17, 28, 56, 70 and the mega is 14. Here's $2, let's go get the ticket. I'd have told you sooner but you turned out pretty well, have a beautiful fiance and a couple great kids. Now you can afford to treat them all the way you want and get back the collection pieces you had to sell when things got hard.

 

If I could give my younger self advice, it would be "Here, take this list, go to the track, and put every penny you've got on the ones I marked."

 

To younger me I would say study harder and find something to want to learn. Never let your weight get ridiculous took me 30 years to realize that. Learn Japanese, now I want to. Buy Berkshire Hathaway stock when it was under $100.

 

High school me: Speak Up. Ask her out, you know who I mean. When you're "friends" make fun of the new kid, don't think you're doing the right thing by not joining in; call them out. Be your weird little self and don't care whose watching. Because those people whose opinions you're so worried about don't amount to anything to you in the long run and the people who you could have had lasting friendships with will start to get to know the real you just in time for you to say goodbye.

Also, start studying in your classes. I know the classes are easy now but physics will eat you alive in college.

 

"I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them." - Andy Bernard (The Office)

Seriously, looking back, there are so many things I would have appreciated more, paid more attention to, and done differently, but in those moments, I was blinded by the glow of youthful ignorance. I took stuff for granted, not really recognizing that some of those things, people, places, and times weren't going to be around forever, but were limited and special.

MIKE
engledogg

 

WJP Age 13: Deliberately flunk that entrance exam to get into that private school. The whole thing's gonna shoot you in the foot. You never wanted to go in the first place. Don't worry about disappointing Mom and Dad, hindsight will make them agree with you 10-15 years later.

WJP Age 15: "Girl E" doesn't like you, don't even try. In fact, forget about girls until college.

WJP Age 17: I know you felt screwed over the school changed your math curriculum, but take you up on your math teacher's option of independent calc study, get a head start on your college math career. It's ok if you half-ass your lit/history class this year to adjust.

WJP Age 18: If previous advice didn't work, take college algebra first instead of calculus. Taking calculus instead when you were out of practice cost you a FULL RIDE SCHOLARSHIP to Missouri S&T you idiot! I knew you grew up a borderline prodigy, but don't give up because for the first time you can't coast through academia. Also, be more outgoing and make more friends. And stick with the exercise program from your kinesiology class.

WJP Age 22: if previous advice didn't work again: Don't take that job offer you got from that security company. It seriously will steal the entirety of your twenties away from you, will keep you from everything you want to do outside of the workplace. Money isn't everything. Speaking thereof, start making better savings habits.

WJP Age 24: Ask "Girl S" out sooner than you did. Either it makes a difference in what happens or you get it out of the way and on with your life sooner.

WJP Age 25: Spend more time with Grandpa. You'll miss him next year.

WJP Age 26: Dude, breakups suck, but you really needed to watch your step over losing "Girl K" and be more graceful about it. Your reconciliation gesture just made things worse. Also, you know that test you took in Las Vegas for that CSI job? Don't effing second guess yourself on those test questions, so what if there were a lot of "All of the Aboves" on your first pass? You missed the job you went to college for for a real dumbass reason.

WJP Last November 10: Get your ass over to your Dad's place, make him go to the hospital before he keels over and dies because his girlfriend's a **** who's already on the cusp of leaving him.

 

Sometimes your walk will prove faster than your run.

 

Where's that Gray's Sports Almanac when I need one?

To 14-year-old me: Y'know that trunk full of old Star Wars toys? The one your parents suggested we give away so we don't have to move it between houses? Don't get rid of it.

To 16-year-old me: Stop trying so hard to fit in in high school, you're just looking like a fool. 99% of these losers aren't anyone worth knowing. Oh, and about that jerk who keeps verbally f***ing with you? Stand up to him sooner, you'll be glad you did.

To 18-year-old me: You know what? You got by with A's and B's in high school without really trying. But that shit don't work in college. And while we're at it, don't bother starting out pre-med. It'll take you all of 2 months to realize that's not what you want to do. Switch to a tech school and learn something with computers, like AutoCAD.

To jobless, lonely 28-year-old me on October 1st, 2004: By the end of this month, you will have your first real girlfriend (who will eventually become your wife) and gotten your first real job, the first step in a career in GIS. (At this point, young me would have thought old me belonged in a nuthouse for even thinking things could change so quickly).

Since then, there's been highs and lows, but nothing I'd need to warn myself about. It's just life.

 

After graduating high school, I'd tell me to:

Take your education more seriously in college and you will graduate MUCH faster.
Major in English instead of Computer Graphics.
Break up with Marcie after a year. This relationship will go seriously downhill after that and you'll be better off in the long run.

That's about all. I oft wonder sometimes, though. What if I did the above? Would my life be drastically different than it is now? Would I have the same wife, hobbies and interests and the same group of friends? Barry! Show me what would happen if...

 

Sleep with the girls who wanted to sleep with me and I denied them because of consequences I feared. These wouldn't have mattered in the long run.

 

1. Learn to type / code.

2. Get a business degree... An art degree is useless.

3. Work hard and save your money to invest. Start investing correctly at 21 and you can retire by the time your 40.

Then again this advice could be for anyone now.