I'm impressed with the amount of people who can actually remember what they were like as a 10 year old. I've got some pictures n' shit of myself from back then, but honestly that might as well be a completely different person, and I can't tell you jack about what's going through their head.
Growing up poor in the suburbs, now living on an old farm in the middle of nowhere, Denmark, growing my own weed, a beautiful wife, have chickens, 2 cats and a dog, my younger self would be flabbergasted. Mostly because I was "destined" to have my life fucked, but I overcame obstacles that surprised my childhood friends. Had one say at my wedding "You were the last person I thought would make it".
That I'm a girl now. Would have blown their mind that it was even possible. But then would have been disappointed in me for not having made a video game yet.
10 year old me didn't have much expectations about the future but I'd say 15 year old me would be most surprised about the fact that I have a girlfriend. If you were to then tell me that not only do I have a girlfriend but I also have a house and the truck I've always wanted it would literally blow his mind.
Didn't become a rock star, didn't cure cancer, didn't invent a world changing technology, didn't become a famous artist, etc.
I didn't know specifically what I was aiming to do, but for some reason I assumed that i would do something that made a big impact on the world. I was totally convinced of it. And it's not because my parents constantly told me that or anything. The closest i heard was a lot of "you have so much potential if you'd only apply yourself!" Ugh.
Maybe at your age. At my age almost all of the Something Great bells have rung. Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of very meaningful things i can accomplish, and many important impacts i can make on individual people's lives, - but for me the possibility of doing something that has a broader impact on society is pretty much gone. But so what, the impact i can have on individual people's lives is still very valuable, and my own subjective experience of life is just as important as anyone else's! So i try to make my own experience of living as good as it can be!
I mean thats like what. fourth or fifth grade. I can't even relate to who that was. flashes of memory at best. got a little more coherent ones from junior high but even high school and college are a blur.
I sat here for 10 minutes trying to think of an answer. I genuinely have nothing. I was pretty depressed as a 10 year old so honestly? Probably that I'm still alive. My life being a mess and hating near everything in it? I always thought that was going to happen.
That in pretty much every single sense of the word I'm an absolutely pathetic loser.
I didn't think I'd ever be anything special, but I also didn't think I'd be 38 and single for going on a decade, living in someone else's garage, working in a factory in a dead end position with no degree and not an ounce of self worth to even presume to choose a direction.
10 year old me couldn't wait to be an adult, but after seeing me I think 10 year old me would never want to grow up knowing what I'd eventually become lol
Very little, I basically achieved everything 10 year old me wanted (own a house, work with my dad, have a house husband, own a car - I was a really boring 10 year old).
But that's awesome! Having simpler dreams means you can actually achieve them! That's so much better than having dreams of stardom that results in disappointment and wasted life opportunities for 99.99999% of those people.
And also, your dreams sound like very meaningful things that make a great life!
The fact that I work with IT with a niche skill set that is highly sought after in my industry. I was 10 in 1993, and at that point I didn't even know how to turn on a computer.
What I did use a lot, on the other hand, was my NES. And 10 year old me would probably make a jaw drop induced crater upon seeing the kind of games I can play nowadays. Hell, my brand new laptop is fancy on its own.
Fourth grade? I don’t think I really thought about my life 30 years later. Maybe finding out I have ADHD; I’m not hyperactive so not the kind really diagnosed in kids.
Honestly, probably only that I like dogs more than cats now when it used to be the reverse.
My life has been crazy, in a mostly unpleasant but not entirely unpleasant way, but I don't think 10-year-old me would be surprised by any of those parts. It's the more mundane stuff that surprises.
Probably that I got charged by a deer in the middle of fucking nowhere on the tail end of a solo 150 mile gravel bike ride, Macguyvered that thing and rode home. That actually surprises me lol
I wasn't an athletic or tough kid by any stretch (smallest kid in class and asthma to top it off) so he'd probably get a kick out of me running ultras, biking through mud 150 miles at a time, ditching the car and running to work
I actually landed on the deer and it got up without kicking me, but in my thoroughly concussed state I thought the best course of action was to just make some huge stream of thought facebook post and basically narrate my ordeal lol
But yeah I had a rottweiler-sized bruise on the left side of my body, shit was gnarly. It was a long ass night
That I graduated high school, have a job, and changed my name. Instead of being locked away in a group home where I'm forced to stagnate at mentally 6 years old, and also punished for being mentally 6 instead of older.