Time Travel

[Veronica]

If you could go back in time and tell yourself things, what would you do?

I'd like to go back to when I was about 8 and tell myself that brushing my teeth for two minutes every day, really is important. And really is not all that long. Take a clock in the bathroom for goodness sake and time yourself.

Yeah, yesterday was dentist day. I have a mouthful of very old fillings which are beginning to fail. No cavities, but I need a crown to replace a a really large filling which is leaking. I love my dentists, There are two in the office and both have a good way of giving the novocaine so it doesn't hurt too much. They have signed up to do their first tri in July. So it's fun hearing how their training is going.

Otherwise I don't know that I would really want to affect anything. I really like who I am now. Yeah, I did some really STUPID things along the way... but would not doing those cause me to be different now? Probably...

But not getting a mouthful of crowns to replace a mouthful of fillings would be nice!

Veronica

[Trek-chick]

I would tell myself to get a teaching degree and not the biology degree I have. I can not find a job for the life of me, to work in my chosen field. Summer off sounds really good right now too.

[Crankin]

Veronica, are those old fillings hurting you? I have been round and round with my new-ish dentist about this. I only have 6 or so fillings. Three have been replaced. She is constantly hucking me to get this work done. I finally sent her an email telling her to stop, already... my main dental concern is my gums, since I have hereditary factors there. This got me a "special visit" into her office when I was there earlier in June (I go 4x a year for cleanings). We settled on, if it's not hurting and she doesn't see any changes, she won't bring it up. I find her new style of dentistry annoying. I don't want a hot towel or a neck massage, nor do I want Pandora to listen to music. Ditto being friends on Facebook. She gave my DH the same speech and when he had one filling replaced, it turned out to be some horrible complication, that necessitated going to a periodontist, getting permission from his cardiologist because of his meds, and it lasted a year!
I am all for prevention, but, geez, I think it's more dollar signs. Plus, she pissed me off when she told me she thought it was just DH going on the trip to Spain and that she didn't realize that I "did all of that riding."
Other than that, I would tell myself not to have married that first husband and maybe not to have transferred colleges so many times, to follow said person.

[Veronica]

We've been watching these big fillings for a few years. One is starting leak - leaving blue streaks on my teeth. They don't hurt at all.

Veronica

[lph]

Oh, good one.

I would tell my teenage self the same thing about toothbrushing. Yes, people do it for a reason.

I would tell my same teenage self to lighten up, not take everything so seriously, how to dress appropriately and blend in, and start biking earlier. I would tell myself that not being unique all the time is not a character flaw. I would also tell certain overcontrolling family members to go take a hike...

[Tri Girl]

I would tell myself to cherish my time with my dad more than I did because I would lose him young and would regret not spending more time together.

I would also tell myself to get on my bike and ride around the country for a year before starting my career and falling in love and getting married. It's so much harder to do once you're "settled" and have commitments.

I would also tell myself to keep exercising after high school as hard as I did in school. I might not have gained the "freshman 20"(that turned into the mid-life 40) if I had.

[Crankin]

Oh, and I would have started cycling at a much younger age. I mean, I exercised fanatically since age 24, but most of that time, in a gym. I rode lots as a young teen and on lots of hills. I think I had potential, but I didn't start riding seriously until I was 48.

[GLC1968]

I would tell my pre-teen self that I was beautiful over and over again until I started to believe it. I'm still trying to figure out where I went from thinking I was hot sh1t (~ 4th grade) to thinking I was ugly/fat (~6th grade?).

Other than that? Nothing. There are decisions in my life that I've regretted on occasion, but I wouldn't go back and change any of them. If I did, I wouldn't be the person I am now. I wouldn't have met my husband or be living the life I have now and I'm pretty happy with out things turned out.

By the way, I DID brush my teeth (and flossed) like clockwork and I still had to go through the process of replacing all those HUGE metal fillings with crowns about 8 years ago including gum surgery. Some of us are just not blessed with strong teeth and gums. So don't beat up your young self - it probably wouldn't have mattered!

[maillotpois]

I never had a cavity til I was in high school and now ALL my back teeth are crowns - they were fillings that just kept getting bigger, breaking, etc.. I have had 4 - 5 root canals as well. It is incentive to make Em a diligent brusher.

[sfa]

FWIW, I didn't start having problems with my teeth until I was in my 20's, and that was after years of diligent brushing and flossing (I saw the problems my mother had and didn't want to deal with them myself!). At that point I started getting cavities, then moved on to root canals and crowns in my 30's. Genetics plays a big role in what your teeth do.

I'm not sure what I'd tell my younger self. I would absolutely tell my 4 and 5 year old self that pink looks just fine on redheads (my mother dressed me in mustard yellow because redheads aren't supposed to wear pink, you know) and my teenage self that my sister is full of baloney and I'd make a fine architect (sister convinced me not to pursue architecture because the math was too difficult. She was two years older than me and I was in her math classes throughout high school. Why on earth did I believe her when all evidence pointed to her just being jealous?). I'd probably also tell my college age self that I might regret indulging in the free flowing (cheap) champagne at the Christmas dance. I'm pretty sure my college age self wouldn't listen. However, she might take one look at her future self and decide to lay off the Belgian waffles for breakfast!

Sarah

[Melalvai]

I would tell myself to get a teaching degree and not the biology degree I have. I can not find a job for the life of me, to work in my chosen field. Summer off sounds really good right now too.

Trek-chick, you might find this article interesting. It is really alarming about the real threat to science in this US: not a dearth of scientists, but an overabundance of scientists will diminish the quality of science as the job prospects become unattractive to the best & the brightest.

I feel pretty passionate about better career guidance at all stages, high school, college, grad school & postdoc, and probably beyond. I would also love to give my young self better career guidance. I cautiously like my new job, but I sure didn't like the years of grad school & postdoc servitude getting to it. Good luck on your career!

[lauraelmore1033]

I would tell myself: "Ya look FINE!--and even if you don't, who cares!? Well, Mom cares, but she's full of cr@p".

Oddly, I was one of those kids who never brushed my teeth (well, hardly ever)and only got one cavity when I was thirty (after I had been brusing and flossing for years) Go figure.

Oh, I would also tell myself that I was really smart. I really thought I was stupid until much too late in life.

[Blueberry]

I *was* good about brushing. Thankfully, my fillings are small. However, I'm getting ready to have to have one replaced that has cracked We're trying a combo of oral stuff + novocaine because the novocaine alone never works for me. Talk about enough to make one dental phobic.

I'd tell my younger self to focus more on taking care of myself so as not to end up weighing as much as I do. I would also maybe take time off before professional school and figure out what I really want to do. Not sure whether I'd end up in the same place, but it should have been a more considered decision than it was.

[jobob]

V, a lot of it has to do with the materials they used for fillings back when we were kids (in my case, waaayy back ).

The metal fillings expanded & contracted a bit over the years and eventually caused small cracks in my molars, so a half-dozen years ago I had to get all those fillings replaced, and 2 crowns.

Eh, in the big scheme of things it wasn't that bad.