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Comment by a0-prw | Hacker News Reader

The advice I'd give to my 18 year old self is funnily enough something I knew at the time: Kill yourself now, it's all downhill from here. 52 yrs old now and the slope is getting steeper lol

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I know a number of folks who remarried and found happiness, and even had kids (!) after 50-55. Life isn’t over until you decide. Engage with the world, try new things for a time and see what sticks.

Just to put some statistics on it.

58% of men over 55 remarry and 41% of women marry/remarry after 50.

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/fashion/13genb.html

I have kids who are successful and seem happy. I sincerely regret ever single sacrifice I made to get them there. I wish I could have my life again so I could fuck it up even better :|

I hope you don't tell them that. Hearing my parents say that would change me forever.

"I'll tell you an anecdote that played a role in my life. I was about twenty-two and one day I was in a terrible state. We were living in Sibiu, a city in the provinces where I spent my whole youth, and where my father was the priest of the city. That day only my mother and I were home.... All of a sudden I had a fantastic fit of despair, I threw myself on the sofa and said "I can't take it anymore." And my mother said this: "If I had known, I would have had an abortion." That made an extraordinary impression on me. It didn't hurt me, not at all. But later I said, "That was very important. I'm simply an accident. Why take it all so seriously?" Because, in effect, it's all without substance."

- Emil Cioran, Writing at Risk: Interviews in Paris With Uncommon Writers

Did anyone force you to have kids?

You have your life now: go and fuck it up as much as you want.

Have you talked with a therapist?

The older you get the less you have to lose. It sounds like you need a midlife re-evaluation of what makes you happy. Go run up some credit card debt and live a little. They won't make you pay when you die.

You devil, you :) I like the way you think, but I can do better than credit card debt ;)

Along these lines, I don't have any words for my younger self, but I would probably thrash the hell out of him with my fists until he stopped being such a brat.

One of my pieces of advice I'd like to send back in time would be to prevent someone else killing themselves.

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