San Diego Reader

Yulia Solovko

From Mission Valley (Esthetician)

I would go to when I was 19. You’re already grown up; you do all the crazy stuff that grownups do, but you still don’t have as much worry. You know how to relax. You have fun. It’s not just money, money, money — you don’t think about it. I think I would do some things differently but, in general, I don’t regret anything. I traveled a lot, I partied, and I had fun. A good combination of things.

Keith Kelly

From Downtown (Candy Man)

I know what I’d say if I had the chance to do it all over again, but I know I’d make the same mistakes I made the first time. I guess I would travel to the year before my mother died, to spend more time with her. My mother died in ’01.

Becky Chait

From Bonita (Court Interpreter)

I think it would be my early teens. I come from a very big family. We all used to come home from school, and each one of us had many, many friends. So, there was always, like, 20 people at my house. We used to get on the roof and jump in the swimming pool. Basically, it was the neighborhood house. My mother had big pots of food for everybody. She treated everybody like they were her children. So, that was a very happy time for me because it was just very free and without cares.

Rebecca Leisorek

From Bonita (Barista)

I have to say when I found out I was adopted. I think I was five. My mom explained everything to me. It was just very special. For a five-year-old to grasp all that and understand how much you’re loved.… I’d have to say that was the best time.

Michael Dombroski

From Little Italy (Chiropractor)

I would go to 1969 because that’s when I was born. It just seems like it was a really cool year. Things were definitely at a creative peak… y’know, man landed on the moon. I would really just want to see what was going on with my parents around the time I was conceived — that energy. Most of the patterns that a person develops in their life — from conception, what the family goes through, up until about age four — are, like, 85 percent of what a person repeats for the rest of their lives. So, to be present and see what was going on at that time would be really invaluable. I’d want to know about that.