Hey MyFicoers! It's been a long and arduous journey to get where we all are today. Congratulations to you all for your dedication to your credit and your successes along the way! I wanted to create a thread where we could all relfect on our journey.
I'll start. I admit, I have had it made when it comes to credit. Added as an AU to my father's Freedom card at the tender age of 6 years old has really given me a boost to my AAoA. I do wish that I would have been added to the American Express True Earnings card when it first came out. My current Amex would have been backdated ~15 years and I would probably have picked up a BCE for backdating purposes as well! That would have given me 4 cards with 15-20 years of history!
My next step was being added as an AU to a BoA Cash Rewards card at the age of 22 (would have had 8 diamond spades 
This was all nice, but if I could go back, I'd love to have started working (instead of being coddled until 23 
) at 16 and gotten started with my journey as soon as I turned 18! In theory, I'd pick up a BoA credit card (don't know their line up at the time) and wind up with my current TR card. I'd have gone with the Citi Forward when it was available and not have to care about the Chase AARP card. I would have picked up the Freedom in 2012/13 with the $300 bonus, and a Sallie Mae as soon as it was possible. I probably would have passed on the Quicksilver (although the uber promo was nice!).
I would think that Discover would have passed along a $150 sign up bonus with that portfolio, which I could now levarage for the double cash back.
My line up would have been:
Chase Freedom (AU) - 1996
Amex TE (AU) - 2000
Amex TE - 2000
Amex BCE - 2000
BoA Travel Rewards - 2008 (would eventually be PC to this)
Citi Forward - 2010 (? not really sure when the card came out)
Chase Freedom - 2012
Sallie Mae Mastercard - 2012 (again, not really sure of the history of the card)
BoA BBR - 2014
Discover It - 2015
Sallie Mae Mastercard - 2015
Chase IHG - 2015
Capital One QS - 2015
My AAoA would be sitting at a posh 6.5 years. I would have raked in a few $$$ more for college drinking money. My scores would have likely been in the 800s... What could have been!
As it stands now, AAoA 2.5 years, scores ~750. I am extremely satisfied with where I am in the journey, evidence from this thread aside. I'd like to thank the members of the MyFico community and my pops for getting me this far! Couldn't be here otherwise. I invite you all to share your journey with us and maybe daydream on what you could have done differently.