[BlackMita]

Do you remember the "failed" route and end up permanently in "the past"? Or do you treat the correction as a fragmented "scene" that upon "correcting" you return to the present and experience your "new" life with sudden differences? Does your memory of the correction fade? Or is this scene literally just a scene, like a free trail with a one-run limit, that pauses your actual life while it's running? Should other people know about it, or remember it as though it actually happened? What does this actually do to other people, if you aren't in another dimension. Does it reprogram their memories as well? Is that morally correct? Do you want me to stop?

[BobG]

Originally Posted by BlackMita To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Do you remember the "failed" route and end up permanently in "the past"? Or do you treat the correction as a fragmented "scene" that upon "correcting" you return to the present and experience your "new" life with sudden differences? Does your memory of the correction fade? Or is this scene literally just a scene, like a free trail with a one-run limit, that pauses your actual life while it's running? Should other people know about it, or remember it as though it actually happened? What does this actually do to other people, if you aren't in another dimension. Does it reprogram their memories as well? Is that morally correct? Do you want me to stop?

Thank you. After your post, I wish I could travel back to an earlier point in my life and stop minerva from asking this question.


I thought about the idea of going back and suggesting that maybe my mom try a different hospital than she did, but there's really nothing I could have done to change that part of my life.

I'd go with something I could actually control - like staying home the night my best friend dropped by with an old mutual friend of ours just back in town, and the mutual friend's girlfriend and sister. That sister of his was nothing but trouble. She stole our 'M' encyclopedia so her parents would think she'd spent the evening at the library instead of smoking cigarettes in the attic with my sister.

As a result, my youngest brother had to go through all of junior high and high school without an 'M' encyclopedia to reference for his reports. Do you know how many states start with 'M'? My poor little brother went through most of his schooling learning nothing about moths, mouths, meningitis, or molybdenum. He couldn't even learn how to build his own meth lab!

And then, like an idiot, I decided to join my friends and the two girls they brought along on their trip to some bar, and wound up marrying the witch (she did happen to be born on halloween and, on our first date when I told her my mom turned 13 on Friday the 13th, she replied, "Wow, so did I!"
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"No, wait! I mean my birthday was on a Friday once!" - that should have been a red flag right there)

The only good thing about that marriage, except for the kids who probably aren't great, but not so bad as one would want to kill them, was that we returned the 'M' encyclopedia to its rightful place in the bookshelf, right between the 'L' encyclopedia and the 'N' encylopedia the first time we visited my parents (who had moved across the country by this time) You'd think the 'M' encyclopedia would have gone unnoticed for a month or two, but that missing volume of the encyclopedias obviously caused my youngest brother a great deal of stress in his life. The book hadn't been in the bookshelf for more than 15 minutes before he proclaimed, "The 'M' encyclopedia is back!" and I and future ex-wife had to stand there trying to look innocent.

Then again, it was kind of nice having a complete set of encyclopedias, so maybe what I should have done was, after the youngest brother discovered the return of the 'M' encyclopedia, I could have boldly proclaimed, "Well, my work here is finished. I'd now like to announce I'm getting a divorce." Or, instead of doing something so drastic as marrying her for an encyclopedia, I could have just gone over to her place for sex, and faked orgasm as I smoothly stole our encyclopedia back (I'm not sure how I would have hidden the encyclopedia, though).

[PRBori]

My life has being harsh since I was a child; however, I wouldn't change anything because from all those experiences I've learned a lot and it is because of them that I am who I am today... they have made me a better person

WISDOM only comes from life experiences, if you don't have any, there is no point

That's just how I feel...

[buttbuttmcgutt]

Although it would greatly pain me to have to again deal with the immaturity of my fellow peers (And myself), I would transport myself to right before class started the first day of high school.

Things I would accomplish:

- Maintain a 4.0 GPA and have the option of graduating early (though I probably wouldn't)
Hmm....though I don't know what school I would pick. I could see myself staying in Chicago for a few years but ultimately wanting to leave. (I may retract that statement if LeBron James signs with the Bulls in a few days)

- Staying on the football team and maybe try for the golf team

- Ask out this girl I really wanted to but was unsure if she would go for me. I will admit this is one of the most shallow things I've ever dealt with but I wanted her bad. There was a time that I had a chance too, I think. Everyone wanted her/acknowledged that she was hot stuff though, so you could never be too sure.

- Finished writing the two stories I was working on. One was a comic series and the other just an idea for a short that I had.

- Join a band

- Don't know if it would work, but I would try my hardest for the affections one of my best friends who I ultimately did end up falling in love with (always did love her really). Don't really know what I would do though because I did tell her how I felt and she said the following: "Are you sure it isn't because we've been friends for so long?" Like, what the hell does that mean? Of course that is a ginormous part of it. I mean...at least she did admit to me at one point that she did have feelings for me before, but it was at a time that I wasn't interested in her.

Anyway...

Yeah, that's it.

[HAL 9000]

I would've been more adventurous with my AP courses in High School. Having a few more science and math credits to my name would've been nice before college.

[lifesight]

i would go a year back and treat a friend of mine differently.

[Jasen]

I do the classic, make big money in the stock market and on sports betting.

[AngryGroceries]

Hmm.

I wouldn't go back.

[LordCorbin]

Now that I think about it I would like to go back physically, sort of like a temporal relocation program. Younger Me could have used a mentor/friend/pseudo-parent.
If the only option was to transplant my current patterns/thoughts/memories into an earlier version of myself (what would be the point of starting over otherwise) Id probably go back to just before high school began. Be more socially proactive, maybe get into some relatively harmless trouble, actually focus on school work and involve myself in some extra-curriculars. All things I should really be doing now.

[Nikita]

I would go back and not quit gymnastics, and instead of Tae Kwon Do, I would have done Krav Maga.

[Wry Satyr]

So many things we're just not equipped to deal with as kids...

I would have given my mom a good swift kick while I was in the womb for the profound lack of parenting she would later demonstrate.

I would have used my mom's boyfriend's 12-guage on him after he beat the hell out of me at the age of 4.

I would have told someone about the rape I witnessed at the park when I was 5 or 6.

I would have continued taking saxophone lessons in junior and senior high school.

I would taken the only decent advice mom ever gave me to study art in college instead of astrophysics. (I subsequently changed to English since the college I attended didn't have a decent art program and I didn't want to transfer.)

I would not have given my first wife a second look and would have let her destroy someone else's life.

That takes care of 0-20. If I could do all that, then my life would be significantly different (not that it's bad now. It just took a long damn time to pick up the pieces of my fractured youth).

[me1]

Originally Posted by Minerva To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

For me it would be making the decision to go to the first university I attended. I went through some pretty bad crap that left me in a serious depression. When I say bad crap and mean BAD! Then I was forbidden by one of my parents to seek help or take antidepressants. I had to return home on medical leave. It was a bad time in my life and it was triggered by that first year. When I went to another college, things were absolutely fantastic!

I am on a similar page, but for me it would be going back to the first day of the university with the social and emotional awareness I have right now. I also went through some terrible terrible crap and ended up taking antidepressants for the entire university life! However, antidepressants didnt solve anything but made me more oblivious. I swear, I think this quite often now-if only I could go back in time (6-7 years ago)
..but then again, its never too late to improve our situation. We may not achieve the expected results anymore (due to the time loss) but atleast be at a better place.

[Anima Mundi]

There are many things I'd like to patch up and alter, but if I had to choose one, I would've stayed at the first university I enrolled in.

[Napoleptic]

I don't think I would change anything, but I would try to give myself some hope. Put an arm around my middle school self and say, "Look, right now you hate yourself for who you are. But one day you'll learn to like yourself despite who you are. And one day long after that, you'll learn to love yourself for who you are. You'll recognize the amazing person you are and be happier with your life than you ever imagined possible. And you'll have friends who won't tell you you're weird and should change - in fact they'll encourage you to be more of who you are! You'll eventually discover you were right, that most people don't understand you and avoid you because they don't relate to you. But you'll find communities of those who do, who you can turn to when you need to put things into words or understand why you got to the decision you did and even gently help you see when you're wrong. So hang in there. You have a lot to look forward to."

[Desmond Linus]

I wouldn't change anything. It would warp the time-space continuum. I wouldn't want to change anything. The mistakes I made were made for a reason. Uncontrollable circumstances were tests to see how I'd manage. There was a period of my life where I was chronically anxious and it was miserable, but I wouldn't take it back. I've learned so much from those experiences.

What I would prefer to do is observe a day in my life when I was in 7th grade. The present day me would be in an invisible bubble that could travel through solid objects.

I just would like to see how different I was back then. What my relations with my peers were like and compare them to what they're like now.

[runoverazebra]

I wouldn't go back. I'm quite satisfied with my life as it is, and changing any single piece of it might alter how things are today.

[woodywoodpecker]

I will not go back and change the past. With the butterfly effect, you could be anything when you return to the present. Perhap a more successful, happier, more power, but also it's a misery life or you may have a disability, or you have died, or the world has been destroyed.
And you certainly will not meet so many people today who are a good friend, colleague or someone you know. Them will be replaced with others