Little Me, Meet Future Me

[tags]General,,[/tags]

One of my favorite shows that ever aired on television was Quantum Leap.

Theorizing that one could time-travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett lead an elite group of scientists into the desert, to develop a top secret project known as Quantum Leap. Pressure to prove his theories or lose funding, Dr. Beckett prematurely stepped in the project accelerator, and vanished…

He awoke to find himself in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and facing a mirror image that was not his own. Fortunately, contact wit his own time was maintained through brain-wave transmissions with Al, the project observer, who appeared in the form of a hologram that only Dr. Beckett can see and hear. Trapped in the past, Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, put things right that once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next Leap will be the Leap home.

The uniqueness and maybe the weakness of the show was that each week Sam jumped from life to life. There was never a story arc that lasted more than two or three episodes, but at least at the end of each episode there would be a teaser for the next. He’d have the occasional run in with celebrities such as Buddy Holly or Michael Jackson. He even had a Halloween episode where he squared off with Satan! How could you not love that?

To me, the appeal of the show was that he “finds himself leaping from life to life, put things right that once went wrong…”. I look back on my life and and often wonder how small decisions or even minuscule events have shaped and affected the person I’ve become. Don’t get me wrong, I love my current situation. But we all have things in the past that we want to erase or wish were different.

In another episode, Sam leapt into his own life as a boy! Here are some things I would tell myself to do differently or even prevented if I were able to leap:

When you burn a hole in the carpet don’t blame your cousin, learn to take responsibility and own up to your mistakes.
Take care of your little brother better
Don’t waste that first, “I love you,” on the cute Mexican girl with big brown eyes in sixth grade.
Trust in Jesus sooner
Learn Spanish instead of French, trust me, it’s not a more elegant language… plus no one uses it in America.
Don’t be so uptight and emo in high school.? Make the most of your time there.? Participate in other things besides Junior Engineering and the Academic Bowl.? Go to a dance even! Make friends even though you won’t be keeping in touch with any of them.
When Kathy the cheerleader moves across the country, keep in touch with her.? You’ll marry her 12 years later.? She won’t think you’re so weird anymore.
Stop wasting your time being a Counter-Strike pro.
Making $7 an hour at your first job at USRobotics is nice, but don’t blow it all on comic books.
Learn how to balance a check book.
Don’t hijack your parents car while they’re out of the country.? You get into accidents AND they find out.
Do not pick up poker.? Do not start playing poker online and even when you’re making a couple thousand a month doing it… the ride will end and you’re not Johnny Chan.
When you go to college, go to the school you want, and not the one that’s closest to your girlfriend.? You’ll break up three months after school starts anyways. Also, major in English and communications… No matter how much you think you love science, you’ll hate organic chemistry.
Do not buy things on credit because you can pay the minimum balance and roll it over just one more month.
Do learn the value of money and not from your parents.
Don’t always have something to say, you’re not always right.