What would 17yo you think about you now?

"I finally became the 13 year old boy I always wanted to be."

About 15 years ago I had a 17 year old wander in from my neighborhood. I knew his Dad and was sent over to borrow something. As this youngling gazed upon my hoard of crap and my shop full of stuff, he said..."Wow, I would make this into the coolest shop EVER and build neat stuff". I was ashamed that I had become a slacker hoarder and promptly made a not quite the coolest shop ever and build both neat and boring stuff!

Bruce

T.J. said:

17 year old me would be surprised I wash my cars as little as possible and that 3/4ths of them have the OEM stereos. 

He would be surprised how things worked out. He would see that 47 year old me is married to 17 year old me's girlfriend. 

And this is why I'm in Florida. I knew when I was 17. Just took me another 20 berkeleying years to figure it out. 

Wow, I didn't turn into my Dad...I turned out way worse.  Dissapointed, really dissapointed. 

Hey, I really did become a race car driver (well, for 2 years anyway).

You are married for 25 years and only have sex how often??? Dude...WTF?

My 17 year old self would be very disappointed that I've turned into my grandfather. There's no Chevelle SS396in the garage, the long hair fell out , and I didn't marry the prettiest girl on the school bus.

17 me would be disappointed but not surprised. 

I think that the 17 year old version of me would likely be happy. I bought my own place, got married to someone cool, have more "toys" than I did back then, can play more instruments than just the drums (and can play those better than ever), I have a decent job, and on the side, I get to use my writing skills my English and History teachers always praised me on for writing about cool stuff instead of stodgy reports on uninteresting books and topics. All in all, I'd say that I'm a lucky guy. 

17 year old me would be excited that I had owned a 92 SSP Notch (his dream car), but wouldn't understand why I sold it.  He'd like the current Mustang, but would also want a pickup. He'd be pumped that I married the most amazing girl in the world, and would love to know we had four boys.  The career choice would probably disappoint him, but he would get the reasons behind it.  In summary, the 40 year old version had all the important things he ever wanted.  He'd tell the old guy to appreciate what he had.

Actually, 17-year old me would be pretty amazed.  At that age I was a geeky sports car fan who read a lot of science fiction and played saxophone in the school band, and dreamed about maybe someday being able to drive something like a Formula Vee.  In college I started out thinking about political science, didn't like it, and took some of those "what should I do with my life" tests, that said I should be either an orchestra conductor or a park ranger - really!  That was obviously bogus (more on that in a bit), but I found my interest and got my degrees in Geology.

What then?  Long story short, I worked for federal land management agencies for 27 years (sort of like park ranger?), drove a succession of neat cars (including a Formula Vee) in autocrosses, track days and a hillclimb, was a co-driver in national stage rallies for 10 years.  Current toys are an AW11 MR2 and a C4 Corvette.  Along the way I tried out writing, since I read a lot, and ended up writing for GRM for many years, eventually branching out in to other areas (these days I write about the history of the American West, mostly for Wild West magazine), with about 180 articles published to date, including covering Pikes Peak for 19 years.  After putting the horn away for 20 years I picked it up again to play in a community big band, kept at it, and today, at age 72, I'm first chair tenor sax in the area concert band and sax ensemble and play tenor, alto and soprano sax in a decent rock and roll band.

So let's see - sort of park ranger-ish stuff, 30 years of continuous music, maybe those stupid tests weren't so stupid.  Still an avid reader (just finished Artemis) who took to writing.  I've never had a bucket list, but if i did, i'd have to say I've checked off 95% of what would have been on it.  Haven't made it to Bonneville yet, but Danny Thompson lives about 15 miles from me and he ran 439 last year in Mickey's 1968 streamliner, maybe I can cage a visit yet.

Life has been very good,and I didn't actually plan any of it, just walked through doors when they opened.  As Yogi Berra said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

Life is an adventure, be adventurous.  Preaching to the choir on this forum.

I think 17 year old me would be surprised I'd made it to almost fifty.

He'd be happy to see that I eventually figured out why there seemed to be something a little off about my family on my father's side - the feeling I never fitted in quite right. And he'd be very glad that I met my biological father, his wife and my sister, even though I haven't got much if any contact with them. He'd be mad about how I found out, but he'd be glad that it finally helped me cut ties with my step dad.

17 year old me was horribly introverted and compensated for that when on stage. He'd not be surprised at all that I'm still very introverted and still more comfortable when on stage in front of a room full of people then wandering around that room full of people.

He'd be sad that I never had the courage to go to film school and instead chose to stick with IT. He'd understand because he had learned very early on that especially my step dad put choosing the safe option over everything else and that it took a while to get over that.

He'd be happy to hear that I had the courage to move to the UK in my late twenties with a few hundred pounds in my pocket (he had always liked that place from school trips) and lived in a place that felt like home more than Germany ever did and made something of myself there before moving to the US.

He'd be pissed at me for my hot then-girlfriend I had at 18 or 19 breaking up with me a year or two later and completely losing touch with her because of my depression, because he and a lot of people around him hadn't realised that that's what it was (and is, but I've mostly got it under control now). And he wouldn't get why she couldn't handle that, because that's the kind of little jerk he was back then.

I like to think he'd be OK with where and how I live, and that I ended up getting married. He would also understand why I never wanted to have kids. He'd really like that I'm still playing with cars and motorcycles, and that I discovered motorsports for myself. After all, he grew up in a family where such a frivolous pastime was seriously frowned upon.

If I had any advice for him, I'd advise him to learn how dial down things a bit and that not everything - especially not other people's dreams - deserve someone throwing himself into in an all or nothing way.

Oh, and he'd get a kick out of finding out that the car gene had a long tradition in my biological dad's family - my sister was brought home from the hospital and carted around for the first few years on the parcel shelf of an MGB, my grandfather had a bad speed problem, to the extent that he totaled a pretty significant race car while 'testing' it, although the race it was built for was ultimately cancelled by the great Second Unpleasantness anyway.

While 17 year old me might be happy with some of the way my life has gone, if he knew that I ran out on my lunch break yesterday to get chia seeds for my spinach smoothies, he’d probably get in his car and drive it off a cliff.