Bob/PKB
My time machine is almost ready for a test run. If you could go back in history, where would you want to find yourself? Who would you want to be?
It's really hard to pick just one time, but I'll say around 1880, and you can call me "Nellie Bly".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly
7 Answers
country bumpkin
(I would have liked to have been the woman who let the men know they determine the sex of the baby instead of the women because men used to blame the women if the baby born was not of the preferred sex.)
Nettie Stevens: A Discoverer of Sex Chromosomes
Following her own path. Nettie Maria Stevens grew up in America just after the Civil War. Beyond teaching, nursing, or secretarial work, little opportunity was available to women looking for a profession; most simply hoped to marry well. Stevens, however, would not go that route. She was a teacher, but it was only a means to an end. Stevens wanted to be a scientist and worked her way through school, eventually reaching her goal and earning her place in the history of genetics.
Student and teacher. Stevens's pattern of working, saving, and returning to school would repeat itself after graduation from Westfield. At age 35, she enrolled at Leland Stanford University. She began graduate school at Bryn Mawr College four years later. Stevens was an exceptionally bright student, and, although teaching was not her first love, her enthusiasm for science made her a caring and dedicated teacher. She once told a hesitant student, "How could you think your questions would bother me? They never will, so long as I keep my enthusiasm for biology; and that, I hope will be as long as I live."
A late start. Finally, at age 39, Stevens began working as a research scientist, and the next 11 years would be the most productive of her life. Stevens was interested in the process of sex determination. While studying the mealworm, she found that the males made reproductive cells with both X and Y chromosomes whereas the females made only those with X. She concluded that sex is inherited as a chromosomal factor and that males determine the gender of the offspring.
Not appreciated, yet. At the time, the chromosomal theory of inheritance was not yet accepted, and it was commonly believed that gender was determined by the mother and/or environmental factors. Most scientists did not embrace Stevens's theory immediately. Another researcher, Edmund Wilson, made a similar discovery at about the same time, but Stevens is generally considered to have made the larger theoretical leap (one which was ultimately proven correct).
| 10 years ago. Rating: 12 | |
jhharlan
I would like to be Helen Keller just because of the great example she made, Ben Franklin because he was so smart, and Michelle Obama just to see how much s**t I would take……...
| 10 years ago. Rating: 12 | |
Ben Franklin played a big part in developing American ideals and was a heck of an inventor/scientist/philosopher.
It's easier to take all the s**t when you're sitting on a throne from which only time will dislodge you. I think many of the members take a lot more s with much less "reward".
clu
mycatsmom
I want to go back to the 7th grade, even tho' Jr. High was hell. I'd like to do it and H.S. all over again so I can avoid all the pitfalls I didn't know about back then. For one thing, I would have taken journalism if I knew what it was. I didn't even know what the word meant ! How did the other kids know ? ! They had smaller classes. And I'm a born writer. They put together the yearbooks and the school papers. I wouldn't have taken Algebra. My mother made me take it. She also shoved me into drama classes. And I couldn't remember my lines. But, she was doing what she thought was right. She also made me take Spanish, and I didn't do very well at that b/c I couldn't remember a whole sentence, but I could remember a few words at a time.....or a few sentences. I wouldn't have taken band, b/c I wasn't very good on the flute. I took band b/c my brother did and my cousin played the flute. I wish I would have been in the concert choir in H.S. - - - -or at least the girls glee club. I would have really enjoyed that. I wish I would have joined GAA, b/c I was more athletic than most girls. I didn't know what GAA was, but it was a big club in Jr. High. In H.S........I wish I would have joined the ski club, but I thought only privileged kids did that. I didn't have skis. My mom said skiing was for rich people. I leaned in my 20s, that you can rent skis !! Course, I didn't know how to ski. How did all the other kids in school join the ski club when most of them didn't know how to ski ? ! Later on, I learned in my 20s, that you can sign up for a lesson on most ski slopes. Course, I wouldn't have had the money to pay for the lesson. I even have frequent dreams that I'm in elem school or H.S. taking it all over again at my age.
Then I'd like to do my 20s all over again. I would have married Stan, b/c he came from money ( that's not why ) and he was going in the direction falling in love with me and asking me to marry him.My mom and my brother's wife kept telling me Stan would make a better husband than Dave, but I was besotted with love. It was my first real love ( Dave )
I could tell by the way Stan was talking. that he was going in the direction of asking me to marry him .Then , I could have had kids. But , oh no, I had to throw him over for Dave, who was a sociopath, but how was I to know that ? I never heard the term.Dave was a charming liar. He asked me to marry him twice, and backed out of marriage twice. At first, he lied to me and told me he wanted kids, just to keep me around. It turned out that he never wanted kids and he wasn't going to marry me or anybody.!!! I was deeply in love with him and our 1st and 2nd break up was devastating........especially the 2nd one.
| 10 years ago. Rating: 9 | |
A friend of mine looked up her first best friend on Facebook six years ago. They are now happily married with two beautiful sons.
My friend new this man when she was five. Miracles can happen.
More to the point, maybe you could regret one less thing.
I still don't. We all make mistakes, and we all are pushed in the wrong direction from well-meaning parents or friends at some point. The anger and resentment in your words is unfortunate; do you see a professional therapist to work through some of this? It's worth a thought.
hector5559
bulletman
I would go back in time to 2011 when Aka commenced they were great times, everybody expressing their views without the threat of suspension, no moderators even thou they are doing a good job ( just covering myself ), it was so simple to post a photo, now if you have a Mac it is a nightmare. :)
| 10 years ago. Rating: 7 | |
robertgrist
Within all of us is our heritage from the first glimmer of life throughout all living creatures to this day...(AKA: Time machine)we are ascended from this and our true origin in the will and ways of God(from microbes to this day, we choose as if you are gods) . All of that is your heritage. Today is the first day of the rest of your life in human form. Are you sure that you do not seek to come back as a grass-hopper( a joke played by Buddhist Monks on children). All of your history has given you what you are today and tomorrow your potential for receiving the Nobel Prize in Medicine, being elected president of Russia, the Pope or the most popular and beloved film star for the next 20 years or more is within your grasp today. But you would like to be like a long dead heroin(Nellie_Bly). If you were that person who you so admire then you have forgotten your own past. You can choose to remember where you were and who you were over time. But our culture is sure that now is all there was and is.Those who choose to explore their mind and discover themselves in history before their birth are rudely alienated from most of our culture even though you may remember others around you by name. Well ,someone has got to see what is really there...and that would be you. Exploring your whole history and removing the obstacles you put there to attend to your chosen path is usually done after death to see what can be done about your short-falls. But that is up to you to choose.
| 10 years ago. Rating: 6 | |
