I found this particular Sunday Stealing rather interesting.
Emily’s Rules:
1. Depending on your age, go back 10, 15, 20, or even more years.
2. Tell us how many years back you have traveled and why.
3. Pretend you have met yourself during that era, and tell us where you are.
4. You only have one “date” with this former self.
5. Answer these questions.
Okay, as we start, what year is it and how old are you?
My sense is that younger people are picking smaller numbers, so I’ll randomly pick 25 years ago, which would be November 1985; I’m 32. As it turns out, that’d be the year in which the movie Back to the Future is set. We probably met at a comic book show.
1 . Would your younger self (YYS, from here) recognize you when you first meet?
Not sure. My skin, specifically my face, is much lighter because of the vitiligo. Given the fact that sometimes I don’t recognize myself now, quite possibly not.
2. Would YYS be surprised to discover what you are doing job-wise?
Well, no. He’d say, “THAT’S what you should have gone to grad school for in the first place. What WERE you thinking with that Public Administration detour?”
3. What piece of fashion advice would you give YYS?
Actually, none. He didn’t care about fashion, and neither do I.
4. What do you think YYS is most going to want to know?
Would I ever find love? Would I get married? Would I ever have children? Would I ever WANT children? And if I DID have children, would I be any good as a father?
5. How would you answer YYS’s question?
Yes. Yes. Yes. Surprisingly, yes. I guess so.
6. What would probably be the best thing to tell YYS?
Well, assuming it wasn’t things like which baseball teams to bet on in 1986 – “The Mets over the Red Sox in the World Series. Really.” – I suppose I’d counsel more patience in affairs of the heart.
7. What is something that you probably wouldn’t tell YYS?
About my father’s death.
8. What do you think will most surprise YYS about you?
That I’m a father. And that I own a house; I was always a renter. And that I’ve written SOMETHING for public consumption – on this blog, as it turns out, every day for 5.5 years; he didn’t think I had that much discipline, and frankly, neither did I, even 5.5 years ago. And that I’m now a Presbyterian, not a Methodist. Oh, all sorts of things.
9. What do you think will least surprise YYS?
That I’m a librarian.
10. At this point in your life, would YYS like to run into “you” from the future?
Yes, but he’d be surprised how much more patient I am now.
***
And speaking of time travel, read my recent posts about going to the Peter and Paul concert, post-Mary; and the Beatles, Again? – don’t forget LENNONYC on American Masters tonight on PBS.
I would go back 23 years and slap myself silly.