My birth.
In all seriousness, I would probably avoid doing one of those regrettable 14-15 years old mistakes. They still haunt me to this day.
I would prevent the moment that allowed me to get ahold of this magic opportunity, causing a time paradox.
Best thing I can think of anyways.
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I spent a lot of my early teens asking this very question. I wanted turn back time because I lost a friend, and blamed myself for it. I was very passive about her depression, writing her feelings off as something she would “get over, eventually”. Only when she took her live I realized how wrong I was, and that I should have done something besides waiting for her to “get over it”.
However, I’ve matured a lot since then. And now if I had the ability to turn back time to get her back, I wouldn’t do so. Of my core philosophies in life is that we are, in many ways, formed and changed by our experiences. Even if some of those experiences have been awful for me, I’d like to think they’ve made me stronger as a person. Mistakes are what allow us to learn. I think that people don’t really realize that. People fixate on their mistakes, rather than realizing how much they learned because they made a mistake.
Because of her death, I’ve learned to be far more proactive in life. I’m not going to waste my time worrying about “what I could have done” and instead worry about “what I should be doing.” By focusing on the present, I’ve been able to help people. So in that sense, I’d like to think I’ve grown from my mistake.
There’s one more thing I do to. I don’t call mistakes “mistakes” anymore. Instead I refer to them as “experiences”. I think the word experience allows people to realize they can learn from what they’ve done, rather than blame themselves endlessly. Because blaming yourself doesn’t really accomplish anything. It’s useless to beat yourself up. That’s why I prefer to learn from an “experience” rather than blame myself for a “mistake”.
Moral of the story is, not even Jupiter can find a lost opportunity.
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Damn… this is gonna be a sad thread.
Here’s my sob story.
Back when I was a young, dumb middle-schooler I basically had no friends. I was a socially awkward child who wanted to play video games all day and I didn’t really care about anything else. I had my doggo, though, and she was my best friend. That was more or less all I cared about.
Of course I’m sure you can tell where this story is going; she died. She was hit by a car crossing the road, but she lived long enough that I was able to say goodbye to her for with the rest of the family. She was a very sentimental, protective dog.
But you can tell that this would’ve had an extremely poor psychological effect on me, an introverted kid with no friends. I became more introverted to the point that I didn’t even speak, only rarely talking in a small whisper.
So I suppose I would go back and try to save that beloved pupper of mine, but the more I think about it, maybe I’m not too sure. If I had continued using her as a crutch, I might not ever have grown up to be a person who can, at least, hold short conversations.
Like @U4ea said, it might be best to change nothing.
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Man, sorry to be boring, but I also wouldn’t want to change a thing.
While I am sometimes curious how my life would have been if I had done things differently, I’m happy with what I’ve got and am way more afraid of losing that even though I might gain something else equally great or even better. For instance, it would have certaily been nice if I would’ve been more proactive about a certain girl I liked in school, but if that would’ve worked out, it’s very unlikely for me to have found this community.
Of course, there’s also a joke answer I can give where I’m not even sure if the german members would get that, as it’s a reference to a pretty old and forgettable thing.
Joke answer
I would buy my glasses from Fielmann from the very beginning.
[details=Explaining the joke]There is an old german advertisement for a glasses seller where two old guys are sitting on a bench, asking if they could live their life again, if they would do everything the same. One of them answers that he’d do everything the same, except for always buying his glasses from Fielmann (the glasses seller).
We frequently joked about this advertisement in school.[/details]
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I wouldn’t have dated a particular ex. I don’t have any hard feelings towards her but I think that the both of us could agree that our relationship was toxic and shouldn’t have happened as it did. As @U4ea said, I do feel like I grew from the experience and it certainly shaped me. I just feel like the shaping it did could have been done without 
. Also, I feel like, if I had thought about it properly at the time, I wouldn’t have started dating her in the first place.
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If I had stopped an accident from happening and had the know how to know its worth and patented it first, my family would be incredible rich and my future completely changed.
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Frankly, I don’t think I would change anything in my life. I definitely can’t say my life is perfect as it is now, and I have made plenty of mistakes in the past. However, I think allowing myself to learn from these mistakes and regrets is exactly what helps me grow as a person. By allowing myself to change something, even theoretically, I take away all the meaning in this growth of mine.
Of course, if one of my mistakes in life ended up negatively affecting a lot of people, I might just be willing to forsake that personal growth of mine to help society. Thankfully that hasn’t happened as of yet.
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Joining this forum OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
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You see, I agree with the idea of not wanting to change anything in your life because you’re okay with who you are today, but this is still a golden opportunity for anybody, so I have to use it. So I’m going to have to go with a classic. Finding out the winning lottery numbers, and then changing my decision not to purchase a lottery ticket the day before with those numbers. Then I’m still for the most part the same person, but I’ve now won the lottery. It’s a win-win.
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I had a similar experience, my relationship was very toxic that even after breaking up I still curse myself everyday for showing him an ounce of love. Im all better now but I think I learned a lot from that as well. Maybe if it didn’t happen I would’ve done worst stuff in the future.
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Me too
looks at thread title
…
I did not need to be hit by this right now.
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There’s nothing that would have been within my power to alter.
At least, that I know of.
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There isn’t really any major events in my life that I’d like to change as I also feel that I often got something out of them. However if I were to choose one there’s one event where I’m not sure if the economic cost equals what I might have gained from the experience.
Last year I was in a long-distance relationship with a girl from Vietnam who I had met while we both studied in Japan. We had for a long time talked about visiting each other and in November I traveled to Vietnam to do just that. It was just that it was the most unromantic trip you could imagine and it became clear pretty quickly that the relationship wouldn’t work out and we broke up pretty soon afterwards.
So not only had I spent a bit over 1000$ on the trip (including air-plane tickets, train-tickets to and from the airport plus money spent while there) I also lost a fair share of money from not working as I only had unpaid vacation last year (I had only started my employment in february that year) which was probably another 1000$ or so (I’m just glad for the minimal wage I have or I would have l lost even more money).
So all in all I went on a trip to visit my girlfriend that cost over 2000$ where it became clear that the relationship wouldn’t work and we soon broke up. And while seeing the country itself was very interesting and it probably was good to actually finish the relationship I don’t really think that was worth all the money it cost.
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I have a lot of little moments that torment me variously at all times, but practically speaking I do not want to go back and I I am not inclined to change them. Most of the regrets I have that I think about wanting to change are the trivial misses in life and not the major junctures. I guess I sometimes wish I could go back and give my younger self a pep-talk. Less “make sure you do or do not do this” and more “Enjoy life, try to be strong and happy when you can and that you cultivate those aspects of your life.”
Oh! I might tell myself to study art , design, or marketing in college so I could have a more enjoyable job right now though I would hope that the general guiding advice of the would lead me to a better place in that regard.
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Hi… I would change back in time and get my father to stop smoking in the time made me… ~ignoring the paradox part
Now ive got the hardcore edition of Neurodermitis, resulting in wakeing up in a bloodbath every day >~<, because i destroy my skin while sleeping without knowing.
Or i would prevent me getting into a abusive relationship ive went through. (I had the luck to meet a sadist, who loves to torture people, by manipulating them… Getting me into trying to commit suicide, but ive failed to get hit by a car)
Or preventing me from getting bullied in the school, getting me into psychologist shit… Did i mention that in germany, they can remove your human rights if the say that you are not able to work with people.
Okay ive got fast out there, because they noticed that the bullieng drove me crazy.
But hearing that you wont get into normal life back, once theyve got you in their facilities, was a nice thing to hear. Especially if your age is 12
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If I had the chance, I would erase my time with my previous love.
I spent 6 years in constant pain. The community revolving around him was so toxic.
He’s a character. His name’s Len Kagamine.
And boy, I wish I could have erased all that time and discovered Umineko before late 2015.
I want to write to Ryukishi one day to begin to build a brighter future.
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I’d have avoided being friends with a particular person that I am no longer friends with.
Oh, and I’d have discovered Umineko sooner 
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Thinking about it now, I wish I could forget Umineko and experience it as if it was new again. Granted, I had to have a lot explained to me, but… Well, reading the story again makes me realize all sorts of things, so I shouldn’t complain. But I kind of miss the excitement with some scenes.
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