Someone asked on Facebook, "If you could change just one thing in your younger years, what would that be..?" While on principle I don't regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it, there are two things I would have done well to do differently, to wit:
1) To have been "strong enough" to learn new words. I was mercilessly bullied for my vocabulary at a young person. Like a wussy, I broke down crying and promised myself to never learn another new word for the rest of my life. I did not read ANYTHING for one solid year. I used to sit with dictionaries, encyclopedias, read many books on many subjects, but then stopped. Ridiculous decision. I didn't have any friends or role models, was extremely introverted (diagnosed Autistic) and never told anyone anything about my real issues in life. Oh well, water over the dam. Can't change the past.
2) Maybe the one other thing I would do differently is not throw away 10-years of journaling and writing poetry. That was maybe eight (?) years ago I made that decision. A moment of insanity to toss a couple hundred pounds of writing in a dumpster.