Ok first up bitch bitch bitch yes, wall of text post. However this is a really complicated subject. I could try and put a simple answer up but smurf it I'm not going to give something half arsed when the subject interests me, read it you might find my ideas and my thoughts interesting if you don't read it you won't know.

If in going back to the past you change the present/future merely because you went back with prior knowledge of world events then you would have inescapably changed the present, every sports result/lotto number you take back with you is subject to change. Therefore if you're going to take something back to make you rich it's better to take back the wisdom of age to ensure you get a better job.

If I had to go back and do a mulligan/do-over on my life I would probably go back to when I was around 12/13 and change high school regardless of my mom's wishes so I could escape the systematic bullying which eventually led to me losing focus on my studies and also to a routine of extreme weight loss and erratic weight gains and eventual drug abuse and if my life seemingly was heading in that direction I would have moved to my brothers aged 16 to further avoid it.

These would all be wise changes considering my past, moving in with my brother aged 16/17 would have seen me avoid having my upper jaw shattered and get out of the drugs use which had by that point become habitual. A healthier approach to life and a change of high school would have generally been better and could have resulted in my joining the RAF as a fighter pilot which is what my childhood dream was and given half a chance, I'd still go for it.

However heres the problem I have with the mulligan option...

You go back in time now to your past armed with the fore knowledge of what you did wrong, what you need to change and what you want to do. Using myself for an example here: I'm 25 I would go back to when I was 12 thats 13 years nearly 14 years ago. I was a kid, I thought like a kid and I acted like a kid. If I was to transport my mind back to then sure as I could change things and become my childhood dream I wasn't too far gone then and my childhood dream was smurfing awesome lets not mess around here the idea of the chance to do that still moistens my glans. However if I went back now as an experienced, jaded at times and overly optimistic at others adult with all the knowledge of what I have now I wouldn't be a kid, I'd be a smurfing freak I'd be a 25 year old man in a 12 year old's body I'd be looking at my hot music teacher and thinking about screwing her which is not quite how I thought at 12 by the time I was leaving the school aged 15 yes, yes I did but not quite how I thought aged 12. I wouldn't treat my childhood like it was my childhood I'd use it to wisely manufacture myself to perfection righting my stupid mistakes, correcting the things I got wrong. I'd study my arse off like a man possessed work out like a demon and I'd lose out massively for it. Sure I'd have my confidence, charm and wit from my current experiences of life but I would've had this amazing opportunity to redo my life and live childhood again except would I revel in the innocence of being young? No I'd do the exact opposite which is not the idea of childhood. This false perception that how you are in childhood defines you, is just that a false perception there is nothing stopping me from going off, studying hard, working out harder still and making it as a pilot, ok so maybe active combat fighter pilot would be beyond me due to the bureaucratic bull in the RAF about exam results ect (they accept merely the first result no retakes allowed) but there are plenty of roles for instructors and test pilots in the industry making fighter jets. I don't need to re live my life to get to where I am and the cost of doing things differently would be damn steep. Think on that for a minute, think of what you'd lose.

For example: I'm watching a program on TV now and Paloma Faith is on it, I have the knowledge that I've not just met her numerous times but that I've flirted with her a little and she's a fantastic person if bat insane is your tastes lol. If I changed my life from age 12 the chances of this would be slim I would never have worked for HMV or if I did I wouldn't have done it for so long thats for sure and it most certainly would not have been the flagship store because I wouldn't be in the city of London right now (or if I was I'd be surprised) I'd have gotten out.

I think of my closest friends away from this place, people like J who I met in high school and as I have often said to him and others who have known me ages my friendship with him was perhaps the only good thing to come away from the long years I was there. He's like a brother to me and whilst on occasion he has let me down and failed me I understand he is just human and he has always tried to make it up to me and on the occasions where I am sure I have done the same and let him down I've made it back up to him. I think of people like Hicks or Jaime and Dom who I would never have met if it wasn't for how my life is now and the events what I have been through. Sure there are small things what I could change and still have my life over all play out same but I wouldn't be the same person without the experience of it and the option of not having gone through these small things whilst still keeping the lessons learned from going through it is tempting, everyone could do with breaking a few less bones but then the pain I've subjected my body to with repeated fractures and breaks has toughened it so that now I can pretty much shrug off a cracked rib unless I catch it and 2 weeks past the event I could all but forget it. And what is experience without the scars to show how you got it? Everyone has their battle scars perhaps mine are more noticeable than most but I'm happy to have them I can sit here and show these scars and explain where I learnt or didn't learn my lessons. I don't think I could pay the price of going back in time and thats why I would reject the do-over not some sense of not deserving it because I feel that if it was offered to me I would deserve it, it would be offered for a reason.

On the other hand, if we're talking about going back say Source Code style and getting to change things but it not actually changing the world of the present with a view to seeing how things could play out. The options are endless I would definitely see the following:

How changing school would have affected my life

How leaving London when given the chance could have affected my life

How things could have worked out if I had not done some things which caused romantic issues in certain relationships.

Where my life would have led if I had joined the Army when I had the papers in my hands ready to sign.

The idea of seeing these events would intrigue me. I'd be curious to the outcome but knowing I would have not changed the present for me with anything but a gained insight to the idea that perhaps I did the right or wrong thing on some subjects but then really would anyone want that kind of information? I doubt they truly do.

So over-all, I would be curious about the idea but I don't know if I would want to actually know that my life could have been so much better if I had done things differently. I can decide that for myself based on where I am now.

I guess it all comes down to the lyric I've often quoted as my inspiration in life:

"We've all been sorry, we've all been hurt, but it's how we survive what makes us who we are."

I'm who I am because of what I've been through. Changing things in the past isn't possible and even if it was, I think changing things in the now and taking the good and the bad together and moving on from that is more important.