If...taken from actual gathering.

So this past weekend I enjoyed spending time with a couple of close friends.  As luck would have it, I just so happened to be carrying my copy of If... with me (actually, I intended to do some blogging but just like taking college work home with me to do, I didn't do anything I aspired to do after everyone else went to bed).  We took a few turns and discovered a thing or two about each other we didn't know.  At the very least, it was fun.

On my 3 hour drive home today with a sleeping child, I had time to think about a many of things.  One thing that popped into my head was the answer to one of the questions posed just the night before.

If you could physically strike one person from your past (that you didn't), who would you hit, and where?

I had chosen an old friend of mine.  He was someone that I thought had changed for the worse.  I had just typed a list of grievances of the things in which I saw that he wronged either myself or someone I knew.   I have since removed this list.  I now realize that I erred more egregiously than he did.  In the beginning I celebrated some of his behavior.  As it continued, instead of calling out his shit, I allowed it to persist.  That is a bad friend.

As I decided that I would choose another to physically strike, I was left with two people in my mind.  First was my freshman year tormentor in high school, a senior.  I chose the other, my 19 year old self.  I'd probably punch myself in the gut (as opposed to my face), it would hurt my hand less.

Why?  I enjoyed my time very much as I "came of age."  TOO much.  Along with that punch I'd offer some wisdom to get my act together.  Yes, yes...I know the whole "If you were to change yourself you wouldn't have the life you do now..." bit.  That doesn't change the fact that I would have tried to prevent myself from being a screw-up for better part of 5 years.  Like I said last time, I wish I would have traveled more.  I wish I would have worked on becoming what I wanted to become when I was younger.  I also like to think a good punch to the stomach with some sage advice could have gone a long way.

Oh, one more thing.  If any of you reading these posts wants to answer the question I pose for myself, by all means, I'd love to see what you have to say.