Come to the dark side. We have cookies!

I like to think that the answer to both these questions is "no one". Or at least, there is no one that I would say either "I love you" or "I'm sorry" to that hasn't heard it from me before. I wear my heart and my mind on my sleeve and I rarely, if ever, hold anything back. In fact, I'm notoriously bad at not speaking my mine or my heart, especially when an emotion is strong. More than once I've felt like an idiot because I divulged far too much of what I was thinking or feeling. It's almost painful to keep things to myself most of the time. Plus, even if I don't say something, it's generally pretty easy to tell because I'm kind of an open book. Perhaps if I had only one day left, there are people I would repeat these words to, but I have and continue to love so many people, I can't imagine how I would choose only one person. The only person that comes immediately to mind at the top of the heap would be my mother, but even if I knew I only had one day left to live, it would be impossible as my mother is already dead herself.

crazy_lil_loud1

I'm sorry

If you only had one day left to live, and you had the chance to tell one person from your past "I love you," who would it be? How about "I'm sorry"?

Reply 553

I think I would tell my younger self to examine my options a bit more. I felt so trapped into a situation as a young teenager and didn't feel like I had a lot of choices or any way out of it. I would tell myself that I had options, lots of them, actually. I was lied to, a lot, as a kid, and hurt by people who should never have hurt me, and I loved them and I let them. I believed that the people who actually would never have hurt me were actually the ones causing all the hurt, and it just wasn't true. I misunderstood a lot of people's intentions and motives at the time. There were a lot of things happening that I didn't understand so I think I would like to fill myself in on what was actually going on.

But, as bad as things were back then, things are really pretty good for me now. If things in my past had been different, my present probably wouldn't be the same as it is now. I'm not sure I'd willingly sacrifice what I have now to change what happened to me then. I guess it's possible that my present could be just as good or better, but I think it would have to be different, and that's not really a risk I'm willing to take. I can see, pretty clearly, how the events that happened to me then shaped who I am and where I am today so I consider whatever I went through to be worth it. So maybe, really, what I'd tell myself is that life gets better. That one day, I'll be really happy and have my life on a good track and that everything works out. But would even telling myself just that change anything? Truth is, I probably wouldn't go back. I probably wouldn't say anything because I'm pretty happy with the way things are and I wouldn't want to mess that up.

A friend of mine met her boyfriend when they were both drug dealers. I wish I could remember the whole story but I guess she was selling to some mutual customer/acquaintance of theirs and he walked in and saw her and he said later that he fell in love with her right there. They both went to prison, etc. etc. got out, got clean, stayed clean, and now they're still together. It sounds like it belongs in a movie.

On the other hand,
My girlfriend and I met online, not horribly clever or original, I know. But. We met through a website called Love Happens. Seems auspicious, right? I had accounts on a few dating websites but I hadn't been really active on them because I had been pining away for this girl at work that I had an insane crush on, and getting absolutely no where. Finally, she broke my heart once and for all (the girl at work, that is) and I decided, you know what, I'm going to get out there and meet people, really start dating. So I started checking my profiles on the dating websites, one of which was Love Happens. As luck would have it, a few months prior, this girl had sent me an email on there. I figured it was a long shot because it had been like 3 months ago, but I emailed her back anyway. Well, she responded right away and we started talking and the rest, as they say, is history. We hit it off and have been together over 3 years now and I'm still so in love with her it's not even funny. She's amazing and I couldn't live without her. The funny thing is, she didn't have a paid account on the website and, like most of those kinds of sites, you can't email anyone unless you have an account, so how was she able to email me? We still don't know. She tried and wasn't able to email anyone else. I guess it was just in the cards. Love Happens eventually shut down, a few months after we connected. But love did happen for us!

I love happy endings.

Oh god. I wouldn't be a teenager in any decade, ever, ever again. No matter how much anyone paid me, nothing would be worth repeating that experience, no matter the decade. Being a teenager sucks so much and I hated it. Loathed it. Perhaps some of that was just my own personal experiences but, seriously, no. I can't even consider decades because changing the decade wouldn't have made that period in my life any less horrible. I'm just so damned glad it's over. My twenties have so far been light years better. I'll just stay in my twenties. Thanks so much.

twertle

Teen Time Machine

If you could be a teenager living in any decade, which one would you choose?

Reply 253

I hope to god that my friends and my significant other would never, ever force me to make that choice. I guess, if it came down to it, it would very much depend on who was making me choose. If my s/o told me I had to choose between her and my friends, I would tell her goodbye, but I don't think she'd ever do that. I highly doubt my entire circle of friends would gang up and tell me to decide between being friends with them or being with my other half, but in order to choose them over her with that kind of an ultimatum, they'd had to have a pretty fucking compelling reason and it would have to be damned near unanimous among them. Like, they'd have to have really convincing evidence, like beyond reasonable doubt convincing, that she was some kind of mass murderer or serial killer or rapist or child molester, something really heinous. Likewise, I suppose if she came to me and said my friends were doing something equally horrific and could prove it, I'd have to give that consideration as well. Fortunately, I think all my friends and my s/o know me well enough to know that I'm not easily bullied or cowed. If any one of them, friends or s/o told me to make that choice just because they didn't like the other or because they were jealous or selfish or some equally self-centered reason, I'd have to tell the person making the ultimatum to promptly step off. Of course, if one of them tells me "I don't think she or he is good for you to be around/be with/be friends with" and has good reason, I'll certainly keep that in mind, but I'm ultimately going to make my own decisions about my relationships. Anyone who wants to try to bully me into dismissing someone from my life will quickly find themselves summarily dismissed at the business end of my middle finger.

I think animals most definitely have emotions. I think they can feel sorry they did something if that action brings consequences they can understand and, most importantly, if they can connect the cause and effect correctly. They must realize that what they did brought about the consequences and they have to be cognizant of the consequences of their actions to be able to wish they hadn't done it. For example, a dog can kill another creature and feel no remorse or regret whatsoever because death does not have the same meaning for them that it does for us. They don't understand death as anything bad or wrong. They will, however, mourn the loss of a person or another animal that has died, not because of the death itself but because that presence is now absent from their lives and they feel that loss. Likewise, a dog who has done something wrong and been disciplined for it may feel regret or remorse for that action and will be loathe to do it again. Many times, I've seen animals exemplify something like regret when they did something they didn't mean to do, or couldn't help doing, turning and biting an owner without meaning to, for example. Dogs do not truly bite by mistake, but just like humans who cannot react quickly enough to stop a physical action that is already in motion, a dog who is turning to bite something else and gets the person by mistake. He will know instantly as their teeth contact skin; their nerve endings extend to the very tips of their teeth; however his reflexes may not be fast enough to stop the bite from happening. Countless times I've seen a dog's teeth make contact with human skin and watched them recoil in horror at what they've done. In contrast, I've seen animals knock a human over by mistake and then look at them with an expression that plainly says, "Hey, what are you doing on the floor, you dummy?" In this case, the animal has no knowledge or understanding that their actions brought about the person's fall and cannot connect the cause and effect so it does not feel any remorse.