If you could do it all over again...

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... With hindsight, is there any skill you wished had been forced on you while you were very young, and you'd dedicated every waking moment of your life to mastering, and now you did professionally to international acclaim and profound wealth?

(Think Tiger as a youth, practicing putting in the rain....)

I hated my piano lessons and wouldn't practice. Now I look at accomplished pianists with envy and regret, but it's too late for me. And it's too late for you, too.

― andy, Friday, 27 February 2004 17:45 (twenty-two years ago)

no, not really. international fame and wealth wouldn't make up for the forced bit I think.

― Viva La Sam (thatgirl), Friday, 27 February 2004 17:46 (twenty-two years ago)

too much was forced on me as a kid, too many expectations -- hence, the lazy wreck i am today in reaction to youth.

― jack cole (jackcole), Friday, 27 February 2004 17:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Computer programming, likely, though I would have found the frustration of (relative) lack of immediacy between conception of an idea and final result a high and hard hill to overcome. Though perhaps this is not the correct way to look at it?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 27 February 2004 17:47 (twenty-two years ago)

blowing smoke-rings

― winterland, Friday, 27 February 2004 17:49 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.suzukimusicacademy.com/jin2001sm.jpg

"I will drink tonite, and punch a mirror!"

― andy, Friday, 27 February 2004 18:05 (twenty-two years ago)

How old are you before its too late to master something?

― Stuart (Stuart), Friday, 27 February 2004 18:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Five.

― andy, Friday, 27 February 2004 18:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Almost anything. I'd love to be special in some way. Seriously, I feel so... middle-brow.

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 27 February 2004 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

i started mastering things when i was 12.

― Chris V (Chris V), Friday, 27 February 2004 18:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I too was forced to take piano lessons, and of course abandoned it at the earliest possibl opportunity. It'd be nice to be able to play now (or at least play something more complicated than the scales excecises that were drilled into my head). But, alas...nay.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 27 February 2004 18:15 (twenty-two years ago)

i wish I'd taken spanish instead of german. what a stupid idea!

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Friday, 27 February 2004 18:32 (twenty-two years ago)

God, my spelling/typing is really in the crapper these days. I wish I paid more attention in typing class.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 27 February 2004 18:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I keep thinking I should start playing the piano again. It's been a while, but I still remember how to read music.

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:01 (twenty-two years ago)

What's stopping you?

― Stuart (Stuart), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I would have probably taken some more courses on economics and business, but other than that... nope. (And I could still take those courses, but the returns will be relatively diminished at this point, I fear)

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:04 (twenty-two years ago)

things I wish I'd worked harder at in my youth

1. my jumpshot
2. sex (with other people)
3. accordion lessons

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I would never ever ever have got a credit card.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I wish my dad taught me more Mandarin. I guess it would be hilarious if I insisted that he only speak to me in it now!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I also wished I had followed through with learning French fluently.

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I kinda wish I'd been forced to go to more school clubs and sports stuff, rather than being so insular, but then I didn't really do things I didn't want to do.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I was also a decent, fairly prolific writer in my late teens but slowed down in my early 20s. Now I can't get it back, and it seemed like the only thing I was ever somewhat good at. :(

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I wouldn't go see 'winged migration'.

― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I was also a decent, fairly prolific writer in my late teens but slowed down in my early 20s. Now I can't get it back, and it seemed like the only thing I was ever somewhat good at. :(

This is exactly how I feel too.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I would have tried to grow my hair long sooner, it takes ages, and today it's gone all static.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I wish band entrance hadn't been based solely on Chisum Bop proficiency.
Also, I wish I'd taken piano lessons

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:17 (twenty-two years ago)

cozen OTM

― oops (Oops), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I was also a decent, fairly prolific writer in my late teens but slowed down in my early 20s. Now I can't get it back

this is completely normal. I stopped writing the second I was in a commited relationship. writing just takes too much time and is too insular. my relationship provided more happiness than writing did anyway.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:19 (twenty-two years ago)

There have been some pretty dumb ways that I've messed up with certain women. It was never all my fault, but I certainly could've handled things better.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:20 (twenty-two years ago)

writing just takes too much time

Depends on the individual writer, though, surely.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow, this thread has taken on a life of its own... there are many things we wish we had done different.

I sort of wish I'd never picked up the electric guitar and just worked on acoustic fingerpicking ala Bert Jansch. I think I'd be a happier, more fulfilled person instead of just another jerk with a telecaster.

Lie down on my couch, patients, and let it all out.

― andy, Friday, 27 February 2004 19:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I wouldn't have moved to London.

― billislord, Friday, 27 February 2004 19:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Typing.

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 27 February 2004 22:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Chalk me up as another one of the "I feel so... middle-brow" people. (Thank you, Markelby.) I did one year of piano lessons and two years of violin lessons and I never really felt as though I would've really become especially proficient at either, though obv I felt slightly more drawn to the violin. There was a time in the past when I felt cheated out of something because I hadn't been pushed to be a child prodigy as a youngster, but I don't feel those feelings of regret as strongly anymore.

You know, I do have regrets about how my life has played out, and Lord knows the sheer number of threats could capsize any Naval aircraft carrier, but I think my childhood-centered regrets could and are successfully transferred to my present-day existence, because I'm no longer a child and focusing on what could've happened back then ON TOP of my usual "I want what [person x] has/the life [person x] is leading" moments of envy would just push me over the edge.

*ahem* But anyway....

― Many Coloured Halo (Dee the Lurker), Friday, 27 February 2004 22:41 (twenty-two years ago)

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