What would 10 year old you be the most surprised about you now?

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.

"What do you mean you're happy with getting socks for Christmas?!"

i live in a different country and most of the day i speak a different language

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.

That I never did Something Great™ with my life.

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.

That I am a girl now. Seems to be a common pattern şn the comment section 💀

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".

Gotta be proud of what I've accomplished.

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.

Probably that I’m alive?

I already dealt with (undiagnosed) chronic depression by 10. The first time I thought about killing myself I don’t think I even knew the word “suicide.” I also had an overwhelming sense that I wouldn’t live past 30. That might not have started until I was 11 or 12, but I think it was there when I was younger.

Weirdly my mom also had an overwhelming sense that she would lose me at a young age from the day I was born, which she didn’t have with my older sister.

Well, I’m past 30 now. My love of people in my life has kept the suicidal ideation to only that. While I still have chronic depression, I’ve learned to manage it better over the years and medication helps.

I genuinely don’t know why I was depressed or had suicidal thoughts that young. I didn’t have a traumatic home or childhood. My parents worked a lot but loved me and my sister without question. We didn’t have a lot of money but always had enough food. I loved school and had great teachers. I wasn’t sexually assaulted before I was 10 (I think I was 12 the first time). I don’t know and that bothers me.

ETA: I guess I was bullied at school by 10, so maybe that accounts for it?

Thank jeebus you didn't have to get married to the type of men in the community/cult we grew up in and pop out babies.

That i don't believe in god anymore. My family was very religious growing up

I finally bought that Gameboy advance

That I'm on a computer programming all day for my job.

That I'm on a computer programming all night for fun.

That I rarely play video games anymore.

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

65" 8K television.

I touched boobies.

That I’m pregnant. I was a tomboy and very masculine. This is as far away from masculine as I can be at least in a physical sense. It’s not as bad as I thought.

That for all intents and purposes, I beat depression. And here's me knocking on wood to not jinx that.

"You look just like dad. And that's very disappointing."

Maybe that I went into a blue collar profession, but that I make such obscene money doing it.

dude, youre still alive? congrats

Life goes on past thirty five. I knew that was the case, but my plans and goals only went as far as then.

Kinda like when you graduate uni and you realize that there's still more stuff to do.

That I hate television and actually enjoy working. Jobs suck, "work" sucks, but getting things done around the house or finishing a project or even just getting into a flow on a task is rewarding. 10 year old me would ask, "What happened to us?!" But I guess I enjoyed it then, too. I just defined it differently. Building with Lego for hours in my room, being creative. I didn't define that as work until my adult hobbies expanded into making things with my hands and I had real world job experience.

Tossup between "You didn't join the military?" and "Why the hell do you want to sleep so much! You're an adult! You could be up at midnight!"

that im still alive
20 was the expectancy
i always say im running on fumes of spite now and i got plenty of spite still left

That it all worked out, somehow.

That I'm a runner. Never in my life did I imagine ever enjoying running. Aiming for my first marathon in spring!

That I stopped playing Zelda AND Pokémon

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).

That my parents passed away.

I went into nursing instead of astrophysics. Decided I wanted a job that would outlast the apocalypse.

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.

How much I've improved with my art.

That I work with metal forming headed towards engineering instead of woodworking with a goal of fine joinery.

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.

My dick didn't grow.

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.

How amazing computer games look now.

I mean, I'm impressed now, on behalf of ten year old me I suppose.

Why the fuck do you have so many kids?

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.

That I didn’t grow up to be Indiana Jones

That at 47 the hardest thing in life was keeping relationships. Everything else is a cakewalk.

So many things! But mostly that I have a lot of wonderful friends. I was a pretty lonely child, awkward and uncool.

Life gets worse. Much worse. And you will survive and even find happiness. And everything you needed, you had it all along.

"Still a fat loser I see. And a weed smoker? But, our D.A.R.E lion? 🥺"

I guess how much I'm still the same person. Sure, I have a house, a job, I'm an adult. But I also still play video games, including stuff like RCT which I lived back in the day. My brain still switches from interest to interest, and my brain is still completely obsessed whatever interests me at the moment. Ultimately I'm still that slightly weird nerdy kid, just grown up.

12 y/o me would probably be amazed that his fancy new Nintendo DS is still alive and kicking almost 20 years down the line. In hindsight it's not too surprising though, because I always treated it with the utmost respect and care.

That I live in a small car with my wife and a cat. lol Never would have ever guessed that.

At least it’s temporary as we are buying land and will soon get an RV and build a house.

this is a great question. for me, it would be going to bed at a responsible time.

I actually had that thought yesterday. my younger self would be so sad about me cutting out precious video game time, but I literally can't focus on my job if I get tired halfway through the day.

but my younger self would not understand how lucky my life currently is, and that "sacrifices" need to be made to do the best that I can in life since many people do not have the opportunities I have. I got very lucky.

The entire world of personal electronics and the cloud.

I got in early and my entire life is digital. I used the first mass market personal computers and was on several precursors to the internet before most lemmings were born. I’m a software engineer: I play video games and do home automation for fun. I don’t have much of a lab but only for lack of time. Seriously, my entire life.

When I was 10, I was still a couple years away from joining my first computer club (IBM mainframe), learning my first computer language (APL - I’m a math nerd too). There were no mass market personal computer yet, and even the first kits probably weren’t out yet.

When I was 10, my life was skating through school, playing out in the yard with my brothers, or in the woods. I loved building and fixing, whether with my father’s tools, or model kits, or Lego. i loved camping, sports, visiting my grandparents farm. My interest in technology was mostly reading history. I would not even recognize most of my adult life

That's I've been working 2 jobs for twenty years and am still married to this asshole who I am grey rocking so I can get through my 12 hour workdays.

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.

You got to touch a girl's boobies.

I can't imagine 10 year old me

10 year old me would be extremely disappointed in my Christmas lights.

I should have Clark W. Griswold level lights, but with colors and blinking lights.

Instead I put up all plain white lights along the windows and doors and a wreath like a reasonable person.

It's so much work as an adult with adult responsibilities to find time to hang lights, and even worse when you have to take them down.

I am ashamed.

that i'm not a teacher and that i don't read as much book as i used to and should

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.

That I'm an atheist, probably. Living on the opposite side of the world is a close second.

That I'm still alive.

that all that studying and academic pressure had basically zero payoff other than at least im employed

You are in accounting? Wtf? You can't even count.

I finally learned to ride a bike. And I touched boobies.

I didn't have a lot of belief in myself. At 10 my dream was "work in an office", because it would mean I was smart enough to not need to work a manual job. I also firmly believed that no woman would want me.

I'd be surprised to learn that I'm married, have a child, and work in tech for one of the biggest companies in the world. They'd also be surprised that I'm moving to that city where Friends is.

10 year old me would be surprised that my predicted death didn't happen. As a bit of fun one time my cousin, my sister, and I all wrote obituaries for ourselves and I couldn't imagine living past 35 so that's when I set my death date. It would be a bit of a shock for him that I'm staring down the big 4-0 (still a bit of a shock for me).

Same as you. I also fully expected to be overweight. Sort of still do expect that at some point.

Well I did write down that I was going to win a billion money and move to the moon. I have much less faith in gambling now though.

That I never watched the final Star Wars movie. I was 10 years old in 1977 when the original came out

Computers aren't cool anymore.