The question

If you could edit 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.

Alessia Cara

Canadian singer-songwriter

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
Yeah, I think I would’ve talked to people more and learned more. Throughout my high school years I was very quiet, I didn’t have many friends. I distanced myself from a lot of people. I don’t know why, I don’t really think there was a particular reason, just my personality—I didn’t really try to make friends or talk to people outside of the two people that I talked to, you know what I mean? I would’ve definitely tried to make more friends and not worry what people would think of me if I talked to them. And learn a lot more, ask more questions, and absorb as much as I could. I definitely tried, but I don’t know if tried hard enough.

Devon Ivie, Interview Magazine, 2015 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 211 →
The public mistakes I’ve made. Most recently, I tried to light an e-cigarette on an aeroplane and was told to put it out. I completely forgot I was on a plane. I’d had, like, three drinks, but it only takes three. I stopped as soon as I got off and I got straight back into my programme, because that’s what I do.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 August 2018 source ↗
Tim Rice English lyricist and author
I would definitely change the way one or two relationships ended.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 March 2017 source ↗
Jodie Whittaker English actress
Getting my tongue pierced aged 15, when I had train-track braces on both my top and bottom teeth. Huge error.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 September 2018 source ↗
Patrisse Khan-Cullors American artist and activist
My mentally ill brother going to juvenile hall when he was 14. It led to his incarceration from 14 to almost 40.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 March 2018 source ↗

More from Alessia Cara

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Question What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore? Time & hindsight
To just chill out and not worry. Growing up, I worried about every little thing. I was like, "oh I'm not good enough, I'm not confident enough, I'm not pretty enough, I'm not this and that." I would cry about my appearance, and cry about a bunch of things that don't matter to me now. I would just say, the stuff that matters now won’t matter in a few years, and just chill out and enjoy your life.
Recorded Danielle Sinay, Teen Vogue, 13 September 2016 source ↗

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