Would you repeat a year of your life over again if you could

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Messages 1 - 33 of total 33 in this topic

skitch

Gym climber

Bend Or

Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 24, 2016 - 10:06pm PT

I'm not much of a sentimentalist, and I rarely enjoy thinking about the past, but there were several years in my 20's that I would repeat if I could, some of them due to the minor debauchery, some due to my strength I had for climbing, and most just because I used to enjoy being around friends. I feel like a hermit. . .and I'm only 38.

Edge

Trad climber

Betwixt and Between Nederland & Boulder, CO

Oct 24, 2016 - 10:29pm PT

I consider myself to be blessed in many ways. Although there were a number of years that I 'could have done better', would redoing them put me in a different place today?

I'll wear each and every one of my 56 years with pride, because you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, or a successful life without a few failures. It's part of who we are.

SC seagoat

Trad climber

Santa Cruz, Moab, A sailboat, or some time zone

Oct 24, 2016 - 10:33pm PT

Probably when my son was 7 to 12. So much fun. Probably the year's when Mom was on a pedestal.

Susan

Charlie D.

Trad climber

Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra

Oct 25, 2016 - 05:33am PT

All of my years have prepared me for what I'm facing today. It's not like I need to relearn a hard lesson, have regrets or need to relive an event so I can cherish it more. I'd say the thing worth repeating is to be in the body I once had knowing what I know now. That's not a complaint, I'm lucky to be here as is everyone.

snagglepuss

Mountain climber

Oct 25, 2016 - 07:45am PT

I'd repeat all of it.

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Oct 25, 2016 - 08:48am PT

NO.

There are adventures which I would like at my present age to repeat, however.

I'd like to have a nice rib-eye steak and baked potato with my old friends at the restaurant in the current version of Yosemite Lodge served by Barb, my favorite waitress from the old days.

LOTS of crackers for to break over the dinner salad.

Endless coffee refills while planning what to climb the next day while listening to Millis' outrageous stories, wishing I'd been in the Valley just a few years earlier.

Wow! A reverie in the midst of another reverie. How often does that happen?

This time I'd leave a tip for Barb. A big one.

You cannot go back, so it's a pointless reverie, but one we all seem to ponder as humans.

Bldrjac

Ice climber

Boulder

Oct 25, 2016 - 08:57am PT

Well.......hmmmm. I've had some pretty great years! And at 56, I still plan on having more great ones.....lots of plans!
I wish Jack hadn't died...I dearly miss my years with him. And I wish my knees weren't f#*ked. That I still had my 36 year old body! :-)
Other than that, I feel pretty darn good about where I stand right now.
pam

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Oct 25, 2016 - 09:02am PT

How many Our Fathers and Hail Marys would I have to recite?

Happiegrrrl2

Trad climber

Oct 25, 2016 - 09:09am PT

I would redo my senior year of high school. First, I would have quit smoking pot. For those who say it isn't addictive - maybe not in the same way as alcohol, heroin, or other things, but I know beyond a doubt I was addicted. I smoked every day - first bong hits before getting out of bed, then on the way to school, then with school crew before classes started, then at lunch and then immediately after classes ended. Then, on the way home, and then as soon as at home, and then right after dinner, and finally before going to bed.

What a waste.

I would also have chosen to go to college. There was not ONE person who made the slightest effort to suggest I ought to go. No one TOLD me it would have been damned near free, with student aid. At one time I wanted to be a journalist, earlier an architect, and even earlier, a vet. But by the time I reached high school, I had lost all "hope" and my self-esteem was so low I thought no further than following the restaurant hostess path I was on at Big Boy.

Those are the two regrets I have in life - pot and not attending college. But I turned out okay after all, I guess. I probably would still be who I am today even so.

Sport climber

Sonora Ca

Oct 25, 2016 - 09:15am PT

nah, you change one thing you change em all. these are the good old days.

Matt Sarad

climber

Oct 25, 2016 - 09:30am PT

30 years ago I had moved to Berkeley and put on my Mariachers and learned how to climb. Made to 5.11 and a V3 after lots of practice. I was determined to make it my life.

Downhill from there.

patrick compton

Trad climber

van

Oct 25, 2016 - 09:39am PT

27

at least that is what the memberberries tell me

snagglepuss

Mountain climber

Oct 25, 2016 - 09:41am PT

He said repeat, not change!

Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber

Out Of Bed

Oct 25, 2016 - 09:51am PT

Skitch, don't be a stranger come and play with mouse and zB, in the Flames,
you'll fit right in what ever you bring, if you post in
It is a way back future time machine .
We are like one of the condiments here on the Taco stand,
what's missing in your life view is Relish.

Stays '72 come shine or rain![Click to View YouTube Video]IT IS FUN TO THINK ABOUT IF ONE COULD CHANGE, BUT THE LIFE THAT I SURVIVED WAS NOT FILLED WITH PAIN.
JUST MISSED BEING DRAFTED, (not sure if that was good?)
WAS FREE TO WANDER - RARELY WENT HUNGRY.
born in 'Murica!
Please!
Born into paradise on earth.....

SO IF I HAD TO PICK JUST ONE YEAR.
1976 no wait '77 or 78 or ..... No '76 was great (2nd time I climbed in the Valley)
[Click to View YouTube Video]THE WHOLE DANG THING ( wang dang doodles too)
Not at this show it would be years till I saw that ,
here is the show that that Mighty MIGHT AS WELL is from, scroll around
Smile be happy in the skin you find yourself in

[Click to View YouTube Video]The whole damn thing!
What Waste!?
and Terry we never met but I'm persona non grata with them that's "in"
It is a Cosmic thing (hey now bud! How yoo dooin'?)
so no worries - I like the cut of your clean living jib,

NutAgain!

Trad climber

South Pasadena, CA

Oct 25, 2016 - 10:39am PT

That Nietzsche guy seems wound up pretty tight, making a big deal out of stuff that doesn't change the day or life in front of us. Like there's not enough problems in his life so he has to make up something to worry about? I don't get what there is to gnash teeth about.

But I guess doing this whole thing over and over without the aid of Supertopo might suck. If I judge a man, I should consider his context.

Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber

Out Of Bed

Oct 25, 2016 - 10:42am PT

Never judge!

Mungeclimber

Trad climber

Nothing creative to say

Oct 25, 2016 - 11:32am PT

Freddy boyz aphoristic paragraph is essentially a thought experiment designed to elicit/flesh out this notion of Amor Fati where resentment is to be avoided as stultifying to self-overcoming.

August West

Trad climber

Where the wind blows strange

Oct 25, 2016 - 12:06pm PT

'92 '93

Sex drugs and Grateful Dead concerts. Plus It was when I was first pushing into the harder grade IV V Yosemite routes.

Wouldn't change a thing.

skitch

Gym climber

Bend Or

Topic Author's Reply - Oct 25, 2016 - 06:01pm PT

Locker: Symptoms of depression???...

Probably, I started doing Wellbutrin 2 years ago this month and since then I feel a little better about life, am pissed (for no real reason) at my wife less often, but I don't care about trying to hang with friends as much. The drugs haven't turned me into a better person, but a less temperamental one.

What I was meaning by live a year over is to have the chance to experience the time over, not to make a change to a particular time in your life, although that would also be nice, I wouldn't necessarily say that I have regrets, but more that I have wasted a life so far and I doubt that I'll change. Thank god for antidepressants to keep a person from giving a sh#t about anything!

I'm looking forward to legalized weed, I've been too big a pussy to ever buy it while it's illegal. Hopefully the Feds don't come after me. I wish mushrooms were legal, I feel really out of touch with this world and the people in it, I hear that mushrooms can help with that.

Studly

Trad climber

Oct 25, 2016 - 11:15pm PT

I would not, for it seems to me that a life well lived is not wasted, as long as lessons are learned from life's mistakes.

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Oct 26, 2016 - 12:45am PT

Trump's latest book title is rumored to be Thus Spoke The Donald.

I'm predicting it will fall to the wayside when The Shrub's new offering is put up for sale, called Neo-Bushisms.

Nobody wants to re-experience those eight..............long..........years.

But I sense thread drift.

nah000

climber

no/w/here

Oct 26, 2016 - 12:52am PT

+1 Charlie D.

Bad Climber

Trad climber

The Lawless Border Regions

Oct 26, 2016 - 06:13am PT

Yeah, prolly '89. I was out of grad school and my girlfriend (eventual wife) and I had the best road trip ever, living out of a VW van, climbing most of the big volcanoes in Washington, some big peaks in the Canadian Rockies, killer rock routes all over. For three and a half months, we were free and killing it. Our last major route that year was S. Face of Charlotte Dome in early Sept. Not a soul out there. A dream.

I've been lucky to have many, many great years. I've lived a blessed life, fo' sho'. But that one stands out.

BAd

skitch

Gym climber

Bend Or

Topic Author's Reply - Oct 26, 2016 - 09:31am PT

If just for the solace a person used to be able to find out in the woods! I started climbing in 2000 and even then it was much more common to go to a crag and be the only group there. I don't mind crowds as much as other people, but crags are becoming much more trampled, dusty wastelands than they used to. I mostly blame it on the dogs, which I like, but you're an acehole if you don't admit that they do a measurable amount of unnecessary damage to our crags.

Marlow

Sport climber

OSLO

Oct 26, 2016 - 09:54am PT

Amor fati...

paul roehl

Boulder climber

california

Oct 26, 2016 - 10:05am PT

Yeah, 1974...I was 26, had a VW camper, money, gear and the best time of my life. Stony, Idyllwild, Tuolumne, the Valley, Tetons... what an amazing year.

couchmaster

climber

Oct 26, 2016 - 11:48am PT

I know a guy who feels that the high point of his life was grade school. He has a facebook page devoted to reliving those fine memories. The teachers, the programs, the old pictures of local stores, etc etc. I, on the other hand, if forced to go back to relive a year of that bullsh#t, would commit suicide immediately and would not even subject myself to a single day of it.

It's strange, this world.

Bruce Morris

Trad climber

Belmont, California

Oct 26, 2016 - 12:07pm PT

Kinda stretching the category, but the whole period from 1982-84. Unemployed. Severance package from my previous employer. Rich GF. Money in the bank. Riding my bike and running passes everyday. Doing pull-ups with a 100 lb weight. Real productive in the FA department. On a roll! Then, I had to go back to the Bay and get a real job. End of the miracle years! Things are never perfect forever, not in this world.

skitch

Gym climber

Bend Or

Topic Author's Reply - Oct 26, 2016 - 09:18pm PT

Have any of you watched the 3rd season of Black Mirror??? Goddamn.

ontheedgeandscaredtodeath

Social climber

SLO, Ca

Oct 26, 2016 - 09:47pm PT

If I had to I'd repeat being 26ish. Had a great season smokejumping, sent Mescalito, went down the Colorado in the Grand Canyon on a science river trip with a biologist girl, climbed in Patagonia and filled in the blanks with FAs in the stronghold. Then I shitcanned it all and went to law school in San Francisco!

No regrets about life since but what a great year!