When you look back over your life choices and the roads you traveled, what would you tell your "younger" self?

Interesting question. In high school I wanted to take auto shop, a vocational track. My dad wouldn’t allow it, he wanted me to go to college. Intentionally, I didn’t work very hard on school work until my junior and senior years. I realized my dad wouldn’t give in.
I really didn’t know what I wanted to study. I chose Phys Ed. Actually, I majored in beer drinking and women with a minor in class cutting. I couldn’t find a position in the area of the country I wanted to live, so I hung sheetrock. Then I went to truck driving school and was hauling hogs, cattle, and horses.
While I was doing that I met my wife, we married and she found a job in Franklin, VA.
I couldn’t find a job so I went and applied at the hospital to be an orderly.
They also had an LPN program, so to get hired as an orderly I also enrolled in the LPN program.
I worked in a couple different hospitals and eventually was able to get into a BS Nursing program.
After graduated, I was given a direct commission in the USAF. After 2 1/2 years I was selected for the Nurse Anesthesia program. I finally found where I belonged. I had a very successful AF and civilian anesthesia professional.

Go for it

The only thing I could tell them would be to weather the storms coming. I certainly wouldn't tell them to change things because if I did that, then what I have now and what I am now would not come to pass. Those storms shaped me to what I am today; a better husband, a better father, a better Soldier and a better Leader.