The question
If you could revise one chapter of your past, what would you change?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Repeated verbatim in The Guardian's long-running Saturday Q&A; two publisher-hosted examples establish recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I’m not thrilled with my lack of commitment to feminism in my 20s.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 November 2025 source ↗
I wish I could go back and not be the anxious child that I was. I spent the first 25 years of my life just trying to survive human interaction.
I would edit my worry, because I suffer from anxiety, which ruins some moments.
I might speed up a few details, but wouldn’t change anything, other than my dad still being here.
Not applying myself enough at school.
I cried last week after talking about marriage equality with my daughters. My oldest let slip that she believed that if the supreme court overturned Obergefell, she wouldn’t have parents any more. I felt angry with my country and ashamed that I didn’t consider the possibility that she might think that.
Human, evolving and faithful.
Greed, lack of empathy. Same thing.
To kids I bullied in school. I have apologised and I will continue to. To repay those things karmically, I will watch my kids’ hearts like a hawk for signs of hardening or any distortions of empathy that they might develop.
Self-righteousness and a phobia of embarrassment.
Leaving the stage from a panic attack in my 20s. Hearing the audience angry.
Gino D'Acampo, Ralf Little, Armistead Maupin, Jenna Coleman, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mo Gilligan
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