What would you say?

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ratesjul
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What would you say?

Postby ratesjul » Mon Oct 22, 2007 12:38 pm

The other day, on the way in to work, the radio station of choice on the bus was, I think, Hauraki.

There was a little conversation going on between the presenters (as they do).

Imagine you were going for a walk, somewhere, on your own. You come across a children's playground. There's a five year old sitting on the swing. That five year old is the five year old you.

The five year old you asks you a question. "Are you happy?"

How would you answer? What would you say? And does that make you think about things?

If you were the five year old you, is that the question you would ask the now-you? Or would you ask something else?
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Postby Luet » Mon Oct 22, 2007 2:19 pm

I would say yes but that it's been a long and difficult road to get there.

I remember nothing whatsoever about being 5 years old, so I don't think it would matter what I asked and what I answered; unfortunately I wouldn't remember the answer when I was old enough for it to matter.

But if I could tell my 5 year old self one thing, it would be to run like hell when I met the man who nearly destroyed me as a 28 year old. Out of all the mistakes that I've made in my life, that is the ONLY one that I truly wish I could undue. Everything else taught me important things and made me stronger. But that? Just...no.
Last edited by Luet on Fri Feb 06, 2009 5:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby anonshadow » Mon Oct 22, 2007 2:36 pm

I would tell the five year old me that it's complicated, but that by and large, I'm comfortable with who I am and have accepted where I've been, and that if I was someone else I would want to be my friend. I suppose that counts for something.

I would not warn five year old me about one damned thing. I like who I am now because of what happened before, and anyway, I like untangling threads more than I like preventing knots at all. I like where I ended up; five year old me got it all without current me telling her where to go.

This is assuming five year old me doesn't know I'm me, right?
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Postby Slim » Mon Oct 22, 2007 3:22 pm

When I was five years old, I was too afraid of disrupting the space-time continuum by meeting my future self. Actually, it probably wasn't until I was six that I had that fear. Is there a phobia for that? I still have it.

In any case, I was too terrified to talk to people back then. It wasn't for a long time that I learned to come out of my shell.

But, if I went to talk to my five-year-old self, I wouldn't warn myself of anything, but I would give helpful advise. Like, tell myself to record Square One, because it might not be on forever. Or tell myself to have lots of fun while I still can. Stay close to my friends. Some stuff I would want to say, I wouldn't understand when I was five, but I could give myself a letter that I shouldn't open until some date or another.

But I'm not going to guide myself through every hardship or regret I will ever face. I still need to rely on myself, not ... well myself. Knowing me, I will want to, but isn't that what makes me me?
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Postby Rei » Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:08 pm

I would be sorely tempted to tell my five-year-old self not to let others look down on you because you are young, and when your friend mentions it, buy RIM, even if they do look down on you.

*still so very bitter at seeing that when it was a penny stock and knowing it would go up but not buying it*



As for happiness, I would say yes. Some things make me sad, but I will get through them and I will be even happier for it.
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Postby v-girl » Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:41 pm

I would TELL 5 year old me that I was happy, even if I wasn't. Because that's just horrible to tell 5 year old you that you aren't happy and they have to grow up to be not happy. 5 year old me should have fun and be happy then no matter what the future contains.

I wouldn't warn 5 year old me about anything. Knowing me, the anxiety over what would happen would be worse than it actually happening. Bad things would still happen despite warnings, even if they were different bad things. People have to make mistakes to learn what kind of person they want to be.

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Postby Janus%TheDoorman » Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:46 pm

I expect I'd put a hand on my shoulder, look myself in the eye, and say, "Believe in yourself, always. Sometimes it'll seem like nothing's working, and it's going nowhere, and if you find yourself truly lost, then believe in me, who believes in you. Don't think too much, just go for it. In the end... it'll work out. Your grasp excceds your imagination, always."

My biggest issue is that I constantly second-guess myself, envision everything that could go wrong, and convince myself that something's not worth it. Not that I'm unhappy with the way my life is going, but the are a few opportunites that I've missed, and it always takes time to get over them, and there are always regrets. I usually make my peace with them, but being able to live more boldly is something I wish I could find in myself. Happy? with my life, sure, but not so much with myself. Not yet, anyway.
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Postby Violet » Mon Oct 22, 2007 7:12 pm

I'd give my five-year old self a lollipop, see his face light up with glee, and be sure a conversation on the happiness of an adult is so out of his understanding that it's not worth discussing.
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Postby Young Val » Mon Oct 22, 2007 7:24 pm

My five year old self wouldn't talk to me. She didn't speak to strangers.
you snooze, you lose
well I have snozzed and lost
I'm pushing through
I'll disregard the cost
I hear the bells
so fascinating and
I'll slug it out
I'm sick of waiting
and I can
hear the bells are
ringing joyful and triumphant

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Postby Eddie Pinz » Mon Oct 22, 2007 7:40 pm

I like untangling threads more than I like preventing knots at all.
I like that quote. And I may steal it from you.

I'm not really sure it would really happen, but I would say that I'm happy.

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Postby Olhado_ » Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:01 pm

I would tell my five year old self,

No I am not happy and then go on and say that there will come a time in the near future, when your peers will point and tease at you about your differences; but you have to learn that this is really all for fun. It is just one thing that friends do. So do not isolate yourself becasue you think they are attacking you, whatever you do don't do that. If you believe someone really is being mean, then laugh it off and walk away.

Also, you may not think so now, but there will come a time, when you start to find girls attractive do not be afraid to talk to them. It does not matter if they do not like you back, take the risk.

In fact, if you remember anything please remember that last line, do not be afraid to take risks.

-----------------------------------------

And then, when that five year old meets his five year old he will probably say, "No..."

And then,
...please take this one thing with you, do not be afraid to take risks."


(I always do try and explain myself, when there is something short and sweet that works so much better.) :)

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Postby starlooker » Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:07 pm

I would tell her yes. I wouldn't elaborate.

I would sit on the swing beside her and we'd have a swinging contest. Then we would have a nice talk about Caspar, her kitty cat, her first sleepover, and what she wants to be when she grows up.
There's another home somewhere,
There's another glimpse of sky...
There's another way to lean
into the wind, unafraid.
There's another life out there...

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Postby anonshadow » Mon Oct 22, 2007 10:22 pm

I like untangling threads more than I like preventing knots at all.
I like that quote. And I may steal it from you.
Thank you. :)



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Postby zeroguy » Tue Oct 23, 2007 1:17 am

I have been past some depression, am currently somewhere around contentment, and am aiming to hit happiness sometime before I am incapacitated by old age. <-- Something along those lines.

I wouldn't give advice or anything like that. I don't remember much when I was five, but I'm pretty sure I was a stupid five-year-old and wouldn't understand much I could say then at any significant level. But hey, why would I lie about my current state?

More importantly, I wouldn't give advice or anything to my past self at any point. Because although there are things I would do differently with the knowledge and experience I have now, my past actions have brought me to where I am now, however fallacious they may have been. And now I am relatively content; I dare not risk that.
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Postby BonitoDeMadrid » Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:37 am

I would tell my five-year old, "Yeah, I'm happy. I'm actually really happy. But I can make my life even happier, by telling you to tell your parents something.

The 5-year-old me would probably say, "What is that?"

I would reply, "tell them to invest in an american company, founded about 3 years from now, called Google. And then store the two notes I'm about to give you, in two photo albums of yourself." And I'll write on the two notes- "Guy who told you, in 1997, to invest in Google, says: invest in Youtube, it will really pay off."

I'd tell him, "tell your mom her baby will be born in the 13th of July, this year. Tell her that over and over, so she won't forget it. When she sees it come true, you'll know what I do is right." Then I'd probably walk away.
And he'll be rich =)
Who controls the British crown? Who keeps the metric system down?
We do! We do!
Who leaves Atlantis off the maps? Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
We do! We do!
Who holds back the electric car? Who makes Steve Gutenberg a star?
We do! We do!
Who robs cavefish of their sight? Who rigs every Oscar night?
We do, we do!

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Postby Hegemon » Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:25 pm

I think I'd just kill him. If I don't, he grows up to be me and my ending it then for him would be the most compassionate thing I could do for the kid.

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Postby zeroguy » Tue Oct 23, 2007 11:31 pm

Hey, you could kill us all that way by imploding the universe or something.
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Postby BonitoDeMadrid » Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:00 am

Hey, you could kill us all that way by imploding the universe or something.
Heh, by killing yourself as a kid, you'd be killing Pweb...-_-
Who controls the British crown? Who keeps the metric system down?
We do! We do!
Who leaves Atlantis off the maps? Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
We do! We do!
Who holds back the electric car? Who makes Steve Gutenberg a star?
We do! We do!
Who robs cavefish of their sight? Who rigs every Oscar night?
We do, we do!

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Postby BonitoDeMadrid » Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:38 pm

Sorry for the double post.

I came across this while surfing the internet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_paradox

Apparantly, if any of us were to go backwards and tell our 5-year-old versions anything with an explanation, a warning, or anything that involves the future- and our 5-year-old versions would listen- we'd be entering a version of the paradox listed there, as basically they would do as we asked them to, then our life might be completely different, and we would come and say something different to them, and the circle goes on and on.
Who controls the British crown? Who keeps the metric system down?
We do! We do!
Who leaves Atlantis off the maps? Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
We do! We do!
Who holds back the electric car? Who makes Steve Gutenberg a star?
We do! We do!
Who robs cavefish of their sight? Who rigs every Oscar night?
We do, we do!

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Postby zeroguy » Thu Oct 25, 2007 1:49 am

I came across this while surfing the internet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_paradox
We've had much discussion about this (and time travel in general) on the old boards, sparked by discussions of the implications of faster-than-light as presented in Ender's universe. The Grandfather paradox generally can be taken as proof that backwards time travel is impossible (and thus FTL travel), proof of a quantum/multiple universe type theory, or that it just proves that you can't kill your grandfather in the past for whatever reason (since the fact that you're alive is proof that you never did).

In any case, I suggest you create a new thread on the science board if you want to discuss it more. Ollie, boothby, jota, and others can also probably provide better responses than I.
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BonitoDeMadrid
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Postby BonitoDeMadrid » Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:45 am

I came across this while surfing the internet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_paradox
We've had much discussion about this (and time travel in general) on the old boards, sparked by discussions of the implications of faster-than-light as presented in Ender's universe. The Grandfather paradox generally can be taken as proof that backwards time travel is impossible (and thus FTL travel), proof of a quantum/multiple universe type theory, or that it just proves that you can't kill your grandfather in the past for whatever reason (since the fact that you're alive is proof that you never did).

In any case, I suggest you create a new thread on the science board if you want to discuss it more. Ollie, boothby, jota, and others can also probably provide better responses than I.
I won't be able to create a thread such as the one you suggested until sunday, since I'll be gone for a long-weekend-vacation for the next 2 days, but still, I don't understand why the paradox can be taken as proof that faster-than-light travel is impossible, or that there cannot be multiple universes in which things happened otherwise.
As far as I can tell, there is no connection between backwards (or forwards, for the matter) time travel and FTL travel- just because such a travelling method turns your body into a "wave" of light (or electrons, or ions, whatever you wanna call it) it does not, necessarily, have the ability to break through the time/space dimension and step out of your dimension- aging differently doesn't count.
Also, unless the multiple universes combine at some point (and, as they are usually called "parallel universes", if we're using Oclidian- sorry for mis-spelling- geometry, they cannot combine)- then the paradox cannot be true in this area as well.
I could probably give you a better answer (from the Grammar Nazi's point of view, as well), but I really don't have the time now..

(Sorry for going way, WAY away from the subject of the topic...)
Who controls the British crown? Who keeps the metric system down?
We do! We do!
Who leaves Atlantis off the maps? Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
We do! We do!
Who holds back the electric car? Who makes Steve Gutenberg a star?
We do! We do!
Who robs cavefish of their sight? Who rigs every Oscar night?
We do, we do!

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Postby Wind Swept » Thu Oct 25, 2007 10:24 am

I'd say, "Yes, but if you'd like to be even happier when you get to be my age, convince your parents to enroll you in a bigger, better school. Or at the very least, tell them to let you skip the second grade like your teachers will want you to do. Oh, and while I'm at it, do your homework, or I'll come back and slap you about. Is that a good enough reason to actually do it? Because I know nothing else will be."

And to the ensuing paradox, "Bollocks," is all I have to say.
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