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.

Recorded Paapa Essiedu said elsewhere, not written here
I would really love to know my parents as an adult. I lost my dad when I was 14 and my mum when I was 20.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 November 2023 source ↗

Others on this question

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Bianca Jagger Nicaraguan human rights advocate
I sometimes wish I had had the courage to be a politician – but I made the decision to be a human rights defender instead. I realised I cannot be both at the same time, because they may be incompatible.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 March 2020 source ↗
Steve Jobs Co-founder and chief executive of Apple; co-founder of NeXT; chief executive of Pixar
But the market was changing. The industry was changing. The scale was changing. And in the end we knew we would be either the last company to make it or the first to not make it. We were right on the edge. We thought we would be the last one that made it, but we were wrong. We were the first one that didn't. We put an end to the companies that tried to do that. We certainly made our fair share of mistakes, but in the end I think we should have taken a bit longer to realize the world was changing and just gone on to be a software company right off the bat.
Recorded Daniel Morrow, Smithsonian Institution Oral and Video Histories, for the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program, 20 April 1995 source ↗
Vicky McClure English actress
I wasted a year doing nothing at 18. I got with a guy and just wanted to hang out. It didn’t do me any favours.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 March 2018 source ↗
Bryn Terfel Welsh bass-baritone singer
That moment in Bilbao in 2020, when I tried to cross the street and did a pirouette and suffered a dreadful break in my right leg, which means now I have 10 screws and a band in it.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 November 2024 source ↗

More from Paapa Essiedu

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Question Which moment embarrassed you most? Failure & regret
In order to raise money to pay for myself to go to the National Youth Theatre, I performed a medley of my drama school speeches and some songs for my entire school. Considering I can’t sing, this was terrible. I did U Remind Me by Usher and Hey There Delilah by the Plain White T’s. They paid £2 each – basically, to laugh at me.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 November 2023 source ↗

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