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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.

Others on this question

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Reggie Yates British actor and media personality
How little confidence I had in my late teens and early 20s.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 November 2017 source ↗
Burt Reynolds American actor
I wouldn’t have done the naked centrefold in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1972.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 November 2015 source ↗

More from Simone Biles

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Question What counsel would you give your twenty-year-old self — and what should they ignore? Time & hindsight
Yeah, I say put mental health first because if you don't, then you're not going to enjoy your sport and you're not going to succeed as much as you want to. So it's okay sometimes to even sit out the big competitions to focus on yourself because it shows how strong of a competitor and person that you really are rather than just battle through it.
Recorded Post-competition press conference, Ariake Gymnastics Centre, Tokyo Olympics, Rev, 27 July 2021 source ↗
Question In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to? Daily life
I just felt like it would be a little bit better to take a back seat, work on my mindfulness. And I knew that the girls would do an absolutely great job and I didn't want to risk the team a medal for kind of my screw ups because they've worked way too hard for that. So I just decided that those girls need to go in and do the rest of the competition.
Recorded Post-competition press conference, Ariake Gymnastics Centre, Tokyo Olympics, Rev, 27 July 2021 source ↗

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