By Wael Abdelgawad | WaelAbdelgawad.com
What would you do if you could go back to the age of five, retaining all the knowledge, skills and abilities you now possess, and live your life over again? If you’re a professional chef, you’d be a five year old with the ability to cook a feast. Maybe know how to rebuild a car, do advanced mathematics or perform brain surgery.
Looking at it another way, maybe there’s someone who is gone from your life, and you wish you had valued them more. Well, you’d have a chance to do things differently.
You might have to keep your adult knowledge and abilities secret, lest you make people suspicious. On the other hand, why would they be suspicious? They would just think you were a prodigy. Maybe you could use your current knowledge as a foundation and build on it, so by the time you reach adulthood again you’d be a superstar in your field.
I’ve been training in martial arts all my life, and only now – in my yearly fifties – do I finally feel that I am approaching mastery of certain disciplines. I’m not there yet, but the goal is in sight. For years I’ve had this fantasy that I could back to my childhood with everything I’ve learned intact, and tack on another fifty years of learning and training. How far could I go if I had the time?
This idea fascinates me. Last year it occurred to me that while I cannot go back to my childhood in reality, I can do so in fiction. From this realization was born The Repeaters, my new novel that should be released this July 2017, God willing. It’s already written and is just awaiting typesetting, cover design and final proofing. Keep an eye for it.
If you read this article, do leave a comment please and let me know what you would do if you could go back to the age of five, knowing everything you know now.
(P.S. That is yours truly in the photo).