Published on 12, July, 2020
I spent so much time playing video games, browsing the internet and watching TV and videos and DVDs. Hey, those of you sniggering! I did grow up in the nineties.
There's nothing wrong with any of them, in an of them themselves, but the issue with all of them is you can easily become addicted to them and I did. I wish I would have read more books and learned more things instead of spending so much time having fun.
Now I'm 37 I would have rather have spent my time learning the guitar or learning things from books, that information or skill would be very useful at this stage. The memories of fun I had with the games, the TV and the internet are almost like vapour that has vanished to nothing. They almost mean nothing anymore but I can still remember facts I learned years ago that serve me in good stead today and the little bits I did manage to learn on the guitar mean I can play better than someone who hasn't learned at all.
I also regret that I ate so unhealthily. I don't blame myself for the activities or the eating. I believe at lot of it was peer pressure, ignorance and lax parenting. I don't blame my parents either, both had come from poverty and were despite being quite intelligent like many parents at the time not at all aware of Autism or the challenges that would be posed by modern technology.
The eating I regret because I didn't develop my body as much as I could have. I ate too many processed foods like cheap sausages, Billy Bear luncheon meat, biscutis and cream crackers and hardly touched vegetables or whole cuts of meat or fish or legumes or wholegrains. Most men are taller than me, I didn't have the best fuel for building muscle and developing growth.
It's useless to feel bitter about it though. I only hope others can learn from my mistakes.
Hi Roswell
Regret is pointless, and you're still young. You can't turn back time, but you can decide what you want to do with your time now. Your diet sounds really healthy - well done on changing that.
I'm in my sixties now, and I've changed a lot over the years. I taught myself to play guitar at the age of 11, using a guitar tutor book to learn the chords. In my teens I liked to go out to gigs or the cinema. In my 20s I dabbled with artistic pursuits - writing, art and music creation. In my 30s I trained as a special needs teaching assistant, then a few years later I changed roles and got an accounting qualification. In my 40s I travelled abroad, did some Open University courses, and just before I turned 50 I trained as a Teacher of English as a foreign language, although the teaching didn't work out and I had to return to accounting.
A few years later I experienced burnout, discovered I was autistic and had to decrease my working hours. Now, in my sixties, I'm a bit like you were in your youth - I love to play video games, read novels and research stuff on the internet. One of my favourite foods is a thin & crispy pizza (although I do have some salad with it, but I do actually like salad!) My life is as good, if not better, than its ever been. I do what I enjoy now, without worrying about if it's what I "should" be doing. Enjoy life as much as you can.
How did you teach yourself to play guitar? It seems something totally beyond my comprehension, it's like when people say they taught themselves to read! Even with a book I found learning music to much, I just didn't understand it, but I've sinse realised that I don't have a musical bone in my body, I'm a rhythm free zone, I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, let alone beat a drum or a triangle in time.
I gave up should and ought a few years ago and I can honestly say I'm much better of for not having them in my life.
I can't read music - but to play rhythm guitar you don't need to be able to do that. My guitar tutor book had fretboard diagrams, which are basically a picture showing you where to put your fingers to play a chord. I did need to understand timings, but I somehow "got" that naturally. I watched other people play too, and practised until my fingertips were sore. I always had an "ear" for music - I could pick out a tune on a piano from an early age, and soon learned to tune my guitar by ear. Funnily enough, after I learned to play I did it for a few years and then got a bit bored with it. When I tried music creation in my 20s it was using a keyboard, synthesizer and sampler.
We're all different - I certainly cannot sing like Susan Boyle, nor do I have the engineering aptitude of Temple Grandin or the acting skills of Daryl Hannah. But life isn't a test of how good we can be at something - I believe it's an experience in which the challenge is to be as content as we can be.
I'm a left handed musician, I don't know why but it's one of the things I naturally want to with my left hand, I found the finger placement diagrams confusing when I had to turn them upside down.
I think music is a bit like art, if you're one of those who can you find it really difficult to understand those of us who can't. I did used to be able to sing, I'm told I had an operatic range, I didn't discover this until near the point when I lost my singing voice. Music was never something encouraged, least of all singing, I was amazed when I learnt that singing lessons existed, I sort of thought you just opened your mouth and did it. My school didn't have a choir or anything like that and my family wern't church goers, so I was never exposed to anyone who could of helped me develop my voice or encourage me. Later as a teenager and young woman when friends were getting into bands, I was never pretty enough to be the lead guitarists girlfriend which seemed the only way for a girl to get in a band.
It's not all bad news though, I do have skills, I can cook really well and I'm quite a good historian.