What would you do if you could go back to your school days but with all the knowledge that you currently possess?

[Natural_Born_Cynic]

Yeah.. I should've quit High school and learn a trade such as Welding, Plumbing, Electrician, Carpentry etc. They make up to 100k USD when your experienced and you can take your skills to Austrailia and Saudi Arabia(also pays well).

Where is this. The last I heard, union electricians were making about what they did 30 years ago in one city, without wage increases for inflation, so I'm thinking it was $40 an hour.

But this would be going out to the union hall, going to a job site and working for that hourly wage. I am not talking about house calls. Maybe these tradesmen who companies that do home visits for repairs a living can make that much if they manage their business well. It's a hassle and a lot of the ones in the union would rather just do the commercial and industrial. Having to pay dues, if they follow the rules, for wildcat work for houses makes doing houses undesirable for union electricians in some parts of the US that have weaker unions, at least. I don't know about the northeast.

Which city and state are you talking about?
I am in Northern New Jersey, and Plumbers, HVACs, Electricians make decent money once they establish their own business or worked for many years. Ranging from 100k to 400k a year as a business owner. 50k - 100k as a employee. Sometimes Union members make more but you have to pay your dues to the Union. That's what I heard. Newbies only make like 40k -50k. You got to work your way up just like white collar jobs. Pay and benefits might differ state to state, city to city.

However unlike university, you don't have tens of thousands in student loan debt, you start early, you get to build up your actual skills, and your job is at least safe from Automation and Generative A.I for at least 10 -15 years into the future? I don't know.

Not everyone is cut out for university. Some people are talented with their hands, others with their brains.

The real sweet gig is becoming an "union longshoreman" inside one of New Jersey ports. There are many such as Port Liberty Bayonne, APM terminal, PNCT Terminal, and Maher Terminal. These f*ckers make more than 100k operating container cranes, forklifts and other vehicles. They can get a job by referral and connections to existing members in the union. So, its quite nepotistic. But the benefits and salary is quite stellar compared to other jobs. If the Union strikes then the entire port stops and the whole trade gets disrupted.

[vlkmo]

I would rather go back to the 90s or very early 2000s as the age I am at right now.

[calmlife]

Life is good when you didn't know a lot way back. Sometimes, Innocence is a bliss.

[Lucas88]

I would rather go back to the 90s or very early 2000s as the age I am at right now.

The 90s and early 2000s were a good time—far better than any year after 2010, that's for sure!

Technology was still relatively primitive (Windows 95, 98, ME and XP; MP3 players, CDs and DVDs, broadband just starting to replace dial-up internet, etc.) while maintaining its own unique charm, but people were much cooler, girls were far more attractive and easier to date, music was still pretty good, TV and movies were original and entertaining, there was the golden age of videogames, and more importantly, no hordes of insufferable mental cases raving about feminism and made-up genders and calling for censorship like we have today. We had it good.

Curiously, just as I saw your post I was watching WWF Backlash from 1999. That was during the famed Attitude Era and the entertainment was so much better than it is today with compelling storylines, edgy promos, hot ladies almost getting naked on TV, and only normal people—masculine men and normal-looking chicks—in the crowd. Old-school WWF is my source of escapism and takes me back to a time when the world was still normal.

I can't stand today's generation. About half of Gen Z consists of ugly, emasculated, mutant-looking weirdos with unnatural hair colors and autistic social skills and who whine about anything and everything and suffer a mental breakdown whenever they face even the slightest adversity. They are a lost generation plagued by extremely low testosterone and developmental disorders due to the high amounts of toxins that have pervaded our environment for decades. Furthermore, those poor souls have been affected the most by all of the worst post-2010 social engineering. They have it bad.

If you happen to have been born in Gen Z, you definitely grew up at a time that completely sucks. I can understand why you would prefer to have lived through the 90s and early 2000s. I was a young teenager in the early 2000s and feel gratitude for having experienced the tail end of a time that was actually good.

[rudder]

Unlike most of you, I don't think I'd do much differently in terms of dealing with the opposite sex. I was painfully shy back then, but honestly, I don't think it could've worked out much better for me in the end.

My regrets would have to do with some of the other choices I made. If I could go back, I would've studied something more practical in the University instead of my priority being what would be the funnest thing to study and skate through my education. At the community college I studied something ag-related, but then went on to study a Bachelors of Arts after that, which was a really dumb choice in hindsight. I should've kept going with ag-related studies: forestry, soil science, ecology, anything other than a BA.

[vlkmo]

I would rather go back to the 90s or very early 2000s as the age I am at right now.

The 90s and early 2000s were a good time—far better than any year after 2010, that's for sure!

Technology was still relatively primitive (Windows 95, 98, ME and XP; MP3 players, CDs and DVDs, broadband just starting to replace dial-up internet, etc.) while maintaining its own unique charm, but people were much cooler, girls were far more attractive and easier to date, music was still pretty good, TV and movies were original and entertaining, there was the golden age of videogames, and more importantly, no hordes of insufferable mental cases raving about feminism and made-up genders and calling for censorship like we have today. We had it good.

Curiously, just as I saw your post I was watching WWF Backlash from 1999. That was during the famed Attitude Era and the entertainment was so much better than it is today with compelling storylines, edgy promos, hot ladies almost getting naked on TV, and only normal people—masculine men and normal-looking chicks—in the crowd. Old-school WWF is my source of escapism and takes me back to a time when the world was still normal.

I can't stand today's generation. About half of Gen Z consists of ugly, emasculated, mutant-looking weirdos with unnatural hair colors and autistic social skills and who whine about anything and everything and suffer a mental breakdown whenever they face even the slightest adversity. They are a lost generation plagued by extremely low testosterone and developmental disorders due to the high amounts of toxins that have pervaded our environment for decades. Furthermore, those poor souls have been affected the most by all of the worst post-2010 social engineering. They have it bad.

If you happen to have been born in Gen Z, you definitely grew up at a time that completely sucks. I can understand why you would prefer to have lived through the 90s and early 2000s. I was a young teenager in the early 2000s and feel gratitude for having experienced the tail end of a time that was actually good.

Turned 13 years in 2004, so sort of closer to your time.
Don't forget that a majority of Millennials and Gen Z, presumably Gen Alpha soon, have been brainwashed into the stuff we see now and voted it in. So they are not innocent either.

People are right that things get taken for granted and the sense of loss and hypothetical "what could have been" ruminating only sets in when those times are past. I think I was born at the very tail-end to experience relative good times even though I didn't date in high school and in fact my first relationship was in 2015, I was 25 and it lasted for almost 12 months. Ever since then, it has been back to square one and having discovered men on the internet venting about how dating has become worse only made me feel more demoralized about it.

But the "good times" in the past really feel like that very old friend that you long very much to see again but never can. There have been more simple pockets of "good" in my life post-2010 but it is definitely being overshadowed by the negative society we are in. I know my dad told me that I can only focus on myself and not worry about society, but that is easier said than done sometimes. I know he wants me to be happy. It seems that even my own family has experienced more crisis and emergency since around 2016. A relative of mine just passed yesterday from unfortunate cause and I can count on hand the number of them that passed over the last 10 years.