Past Perfect?

When we are small, we most often dream big. We cant wait to herald upon life. We find ourselves invincible and every wish

within reach. It is this early youth (teenage) when we are hazards to our parents peace of mind, when we clash with ideologies and when we charter new paths for our generation. These early years are often a very confusing parts of our lives. We aim big, we are most often reckless with time and love and are happily given the liberties of childhood.
(PS: Most confusing part of our life is when we have grown up and are "expected" to have a job, a family and the whole circus).
But while we are dreaming big, so it happens that we have no connection with the truths of life. When we begin to dream, we forsee life giving us a lot. The reality is that, Life takes a lot from you. It makes you stand at crossroads, asking you to make tough choices. Life asks you to survive, and the reality is that if you are not careful it most often kills your passion for living.

When we grow up, some seven eight years later, we have a much better understanding and more plausible dreams.. We have limited our dreams at times, because we know that we didnt give ourselves the right start. While journeying through every
moment uptill now we have accumulated a lot of experience. Our success and failures have taught us. We now seem to be saner, more practical and grown up versions of ourselves (but still very confused). We have obligations and responsibilities
and bills to pay. Many times while struggling to juggle the daily rigmaroles, we sigh and wish we had made wiser choises. We wish we had more courage then.
At times we wish to go back in the past and return our experiences to Ourselves (when we were sixteen year olds). The thing is that we are simply living right now. We have stopped thinking and living the moments as we go. If I asked you to give me
five points you wish to teach your sixteen year old 'self', each of you will falter. There are a lot many simple things/view points which I wish I had known.

There are many mistakes I could have avoided, many people I wouldnt have met and a very different path I might be walking. It could have been for the better, might have turned for the worse. Whatever it could be, I wish I could have showed my 'today' to myself eight years ago..