8mo ago

What would 10 year old you be the most surprised about you now?

For me, it would be that I smoke weed

127 comments

That I'm a girl now. Would have blown their mind that it was even possible. But then would have been disappointed in me for not having made a video game yet.
- As someone who recently came out, I was kinda hoping that this would be here. It is a pretty wild thought
- Estradiol is fucking magical.
  
  Estrogen in general I would say.
- But then would have been disappointed in me for not having made a video game yet.
  That's me NOW, too! Maybe if enough of us get together we can cobble something together to appease our childhood selves
  
  But with how abusive the game industry is, makes me never want to get a job at a company that makes games. But that also means I have a full time job doing something else, and the idea of doing my job and coming home to work on my passion project game also sounds nightmarish.
- I was about to comment the same thing lol. Even the video game part.
  Honestly though, I feel like there's a chance I wouldn't have been surprised cause I feel like I subconsciously knew back then but just didn't understand it or know the words to describe it.
  
  I always felt a kinship with girls while growing up and often thought of it as the idea that men and women really weren't as different as people kept saying they were.
  No kid, you're trans. You weren't a shining example of how a boy can get along with girls. You were just a girl among other girls.

"What do you mean you're happy with getting socks for Christmas?!"
- Never thought I’d spend as much on the wool socks I have… yet here I am.
- Darn Tough
  
  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/darn#Etymology_2
- Last time I was gifted socks...they were the wrong one (somehow, I get my socks from Walmart, so I'm not too picky, or so I thought). I'm pretty sure it was an amazon special - anyways now I tell everyone I'm super picky about socks or that I have 20 pairs already.

i live in a different country and most of the day i speak a different language

You see that pretty girl who lets you touch her? That's your wife.
See those kids - they are yours. That one can go hunting and will get more girls than you ever will, that one is as kind and caring as you can get, and that one will do dumb shit with you.
- Evwrybody likes to feel useful

That I never did Something Great™ with my life.
Didn't become a rock star, didn't cure cancer, didn't invent a world changing technology, didn't become a famous artist, etc.
I didn't know specifically what I was aiming to do, but for some reason I assumed that i would do something that made a big impact on the world. I was totally convinced of it. And it's not because my parents constantly told me that or anything. The closest i heard was a lot of "you have so much potential if you'd only apply yourself!" Ugh.
- i didnt hear no bell
  
  Maybe at your age. At my age almost all of the Something Great bells have rung. Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of very meaningful things i can accomplish, and many important impacts i can make on individual people's lives, - but for me the possibility of doing something that has a broader impact on society is pretty much gone. But so what, the impact i can have on individual people's lives is still very valuable, and my own subjective experience of life is just as important as anyone else's! So i try to make my own experience of living as good as it can be!
- my parents had me convinced id magically save the world. made me feel like id never have to try, so i didnt. we see how that worked out lol
- Do you have kids or a partner?
  Because that made a significant impact on their world.
  
  That's exactly what i was trying to say. I don't have the chance to make an impact on society at large, but i absolutely do make a very significant impact on the individual people in my personal circle, and that's extremely valuable.

I'm impressed with the amount of people who can actually remember what they were like as a 10 year old. I've got some pictures n' shit of myself from back then, but honestly that might as well be a completely different person, and I can't tell you jack about what's going through their head.
- I can relate to that. I remember specific memories, but my situation has changed so much that I don't relate to being the same person
- What age do you start remembering what you were like?
  I became really self-aware at 11. I’m guessing a bit about being 10, but 6th grade (11-12) is when I feel like I started being the person I still am 20+ years later. Obviously I’ve grown, but it started then.
  
  I have some vague memories from around middle school, but pretty much nothing prior to that.
  Highschool and later are locked in, but before that goes from hazy to brick wall real quick.

Probably that I haven't killed myself yet. That's not a joke.
- Yeah, I survived too 💓! Always wanted to but it wasn't always so simple.

That I am a girl now. Seems to be a common pattern şn the comment section 💀
- Same, although I had thoughts in that direction at that age but I couldn't categorize them.
  
  yep. Same (about having had the thoughts and not being able to categorize)

Growing up poor in the suburbs, now living on an old farm in the middle of nowhere, Denmark, growing my own weed, a beautiful wife, have chickens, 2 cats and a dog, my younger self would be flabbergasted. Mostly because I was "destined" to have my life fucked, but I overcame obstacles that surprised my childhood friends. Had one say at my wedding "You were the last person I thought would make it".
Gotta be proud of what I've accomplished.
- I'm gonna have a drink tonight for this. Here's to making it. The best feeling you can have as a child is hearing from your parents when you've become an adult that they're proud of who you have become.
  
  It would be good, had it not been for my father being absent from I was 13 until I was 35, when we reconnected. He told me he was proud of me (wtf?) and we did a video call. He told me I needed to cut my hair (had hair nearly reaching my bellybutton, and I'm male). Realised later why on his Facebook: he's a self-proclaimed nazi (he's greek) who believes all gays (probably LGBTQ+ in general) should be killed, and the fact that the only way to punish criminals who's done something to you is to get your crew together and beat them up. So yeah, fun lol
  My half-brother on my father's side has completely removed him due to being who he is, which is 100% understandable, as I have also removed our father from my life now.
  And my mother has told me she's proud of me, but she's a narcissistic alcoholic, so lots of luggage there lol.
  At least I'm married now 8 years and counting), own a house with land, and have chosen my family (you can't choose who you're blood related to, but you can choose your family!), whom I love and cherish.
  Therapy helps (along with mushrooms)!!
  Rant over 😂
  Thanks for the drink 🍺🥂

I mean thats like what. fourth or fifth grade. I can't even relate to who that was. flashes of memory at best. got a little more coherent ones from junior high but even high school and college are a blur.

Thank jeebus you didn't have to get married to the type of men in the community/cult we grew up in and pop out babies.

Probably that I’m alive?
I already dealt with (undiagnosed) chronic depression by 10. The first time I thought about killing myself I don’t think I even knew the word “suicide.” I also had an overwhelming sense that I wouldn’t live past 30. That might not have started until I was 11 or 12, but I think it was there when I was younger.
Weirdly my mom also had an overwhelming sense that she would lose me at a young age from the day I was born, which she didn’t have with my older sister.
Well, I’m past 30 now. My love of people in my life has kept the suicidal ideation to only that. While I still have chronic depression, I’ve learned to manage it better over the years and medication helps.
I genuinely don’t know why I was depressed or had suicidal thoughts that young. I didn’t have a traumatic home or childhood. My parents worked a lot but loved me and my sister without question. We didn’t have a lot of money but always had enough food. I loved school and had great teachers. I wasn’t sexually assaulted before I was 10 (I think I was 12 the first time). I don’t know and that bothers me.
ETA: I guess I was bullied at school by 10, so maybe that accounts for it?

I finally bought that Gameboy advance

That i don't believe in god anymore. My family was very religious growing up
- The brainwashing is real. Took me years to fully grow out of it.

My job...
10 year old me would be amazed
21 year old me would call me a sell out
30 year old me would nod approvingly
Current age me is getting too old for this shit
- Current age me is getting too old for this shit
  Ah fuck, you’re partnered with Riggs, aren’t you?
  
  Blackface.jpeg

That in pretty much every single sense of the word I'm an absolutely pathetic loser.
I didn't think I'd ever be anything special, but I also didn't think I'd be 38 and single for going on a decade, living in someone else's garage, working in a factory in a dead end position with no degree and not an ounce of self worth to even presume to choose a direction.
10 year old me couldn't wait to be an adult, but after seeing me I think 10 year old me would never want to grow up knowing what I'd eventually become lol
- Hey dude, I don’t know you and I don’t know anything about you. I do know that everyone, even people you would never expect, have value. You are amazing just for being you. If you find things you enjoy, do those things. 10 year old you may be prouder of you than you think, even if it’s because of how you have kept on going when things have gotten tough. I hope you feel that.
  
  I appreciate the kind words! Empathy is proving to be increasingly more rare in society so I appreciate you wanting to express that.
- 10 year old would probably be proud you have a job, no responsibilities and can stay up on the Xbox or whatever all night.

That I’m pregnant. I was a tomboy and very masculine. This is as far away from masculine as I can be at least in a physical sense. It’s not as bad as I thought.

That I'm on a computer programming all day for my job.
That I'm on a computer programming all night for fun.
That I rarely play video games anymore.

I touched boobies.
- Coolest dude ever.

65" 8K television.
- are you a transformer?
  
  Maybe...
- 75", only 4k.

That I hate television and actually enjoy working. Jobs suck, "work" sucks, but getting things done around the house or finishing a project or even just getting into a flow on a task is rewarding. 10 year old me would ask, "What happened to us?!" But I guess I enjoyed it then, too. I just defined it differently. Building with Lego for hours in my room, being creative. I didn't define that as work until my adult hobbies expanded into making things with my hands and I had real world job experience.

That for all intents and purposes, I beat depression. And here's me knocking on wood to not jinx that.

The girl 10 yo me was hanging out with all the time, very much thought I was going to marry (she did too) and eventually took my virginity a few years later is now an incredibly handsome man with a wife and kids
Its probably that, honestly. Maybe that I've spent a month and a half of my life in Japan so far, that's p wild for a 20 year old and I'd never have even considered it then

"You look just like dad. And that's very disappointing."

Maybe that I went into a blue collar profession, but that I make such obscene money doing it.

Life goes on past thirty five. I knew that was the case, but my plans and goals only went as far as then.
Kinda like when you graduate uni and you realize that there's still more stuff to do.

I sat here for 10 minutes trying to think of an answer. I genuinely have nothing. I was pretty depressed as a 10 year old so honestly? Probably that I'm still alive. My life being a mess and hating near everything in it? I always thought that was going to happen.
- Happy to have you still here.

that im still alive
20 was the expectancy
i always say im running on fumes of spite now and i got plenty of spite still left

That it all worked out, somehow.
- 10 yrs old you Hi-Five!

dude, youre still alive? congrats

That I work with metal forming headed towards engineering instead of woodworking with a goal of fine joinery.

That I stopped playing Zelda AND Pokémon

Tossup between "You didn't join the military?" and "Why the hell do you want to sleep so much! You're an adult! You could be up at midnight!"

That my parents passed away.

Very little, I basically achieved everything 10 year old me wanted (own a house, work with my dad, have a house husband, own a car - I was a really boring 10 year old).
- Are you hiring a second house husband? We can do house stuff then play xbox.
  
  You have described his occupation perfectly. It's not always as awesome as it sounds tho: tonight he had to referee 4 screaming boys in a bouncy house in our living room while making dinner. I'm happy to report everyone survived.
- But that's awesome! Having simpler dreams means you can actually achieve them! That's so much better than having dreams of stardom that results in disappointment and wasted life opportunities for 99.99999% of those people.
  And also, your dreams sound like very meaningful things that make a great life!

That at 47 the hardest thing in life was keeping relationships. Everything else is a cakewalk.

10 year old me didn't have much expectations about the future but I'd say 15 year old me would be most surprised about the fact that I have a girlfriend. If you were to then tell me that not only do I have a girlfriend but I also have a house and the truck I've always wanted it would literally blow his mind.
- Yeah 10 year old me didn't have much thoughts about the future. Similar but not the exact same as you, but 15 year old me would be surprised that I have someone in my life who considers me a friend. 15 year old me would probably be disappointed that I didn't go to med school, but imo I make decent enough money.
  I'm glad things are going pretty good for you right now. :)

this is a great question. for me, it would be going to bed at a responsible time.
I actually had that thought yesterday. my younger self would be so sad about me cutting out precious video game time, but I literally can't focus on my job if I get tired halfway through the day.
but my younger self would not understand how lucky my life currently is, and that "sacrifices" need to be made to do the best that I can in life since many people do not have the opportunities I have. I got very lucky.

That I'm not disappointed in him.

That I'm a runner. Never in my life did I imagine ever enjoying running. Aiming for my first marathon in spring!
- Awesome! Do what you love! 10 yrs old you would think that's so cool. 26 miles is Really far!

How much I've improved with my art.

"Still a fat loser I see. And a weed smoker? But, our D.A.R.E lion? 🥺"

Why the fuck do you have so many kids?

That I live in a small car with my wife and a cat. lol Never would have ever guessed that.
At least it’s temporary as we are buying land and will soon get an RV and build a house.

My dick didn't grow.

That I didn’t grow up to be Indiana Jones

The fact that I work with IT with a niche skill set that is highly sought after in my industry. I was 10 in 1993, and at that point I didn't even know how to turn on a computer.
What I did use a lot, on the other hand, was my NES. And 10 year old me would probably make a jaw drop induced crater upon seeing the kind of games I can play nowadays. Hell, my brand new laptop is fancy on its own.

Fourth grade? I don’t think I really thought about my life 30 years later. Maybe finding out I have ADHD; I’m not hyperactive so not the kind really diagnosed in kids.

That I'd rather go outside than play video games all day.
That I no longer care about becoming a software developer and work in a huge corporation (fuck 'em)
That I still have no girlfriend.

I guess how much I'm still the same person. Sure, I have a house, a job, I'm an adult. But I also still play video games, including stuff like RCT which I lived back in the day. My brain still switches from interest to interest, and my brain is still completely obsessed whatever interests me at the moment. Ultimately I'm still that slightly weird nerdy kid, just grown up.
12 y/o me would probably be amazed that his fancy new Nintendo DS is still alive and kicking almost 20 years down the line. In hindsight it's not too surprising though, because I always treated it with the utmost respect and care.

So many things! But mostly that I have a lot of wonderful friends. I was a pretty lonely child, awkward and uncool.

127 comments