If you had the opportunity to travel through time...

[Davetello]

and go back to your childhood, would you do it?

This is a one time thing - you can go back to who you were as a young boy or young girl. I'm thinking about twelve.

The thing is that you would remain conscious of what your life as an adult was like. You wouldn't remember the precise decisions you made and specific experiences (if you did everyone would answer yes to this as they'd be able to correct mistakes, and the thread would be rendered futile), but you would regain the feelings and emotions of being an adult.

So would you like to trade it all to go back to your childhood, when things were probably easier? Or would that be a big no-no as you'd have to spend a good few years being excluded from the things you've been doing as an adult (drinking, sex, living alone etc)?

[Prowler]

Since I'd have no memories from my adulthood, then nah. I'd just make the same mistakes all over again, so it seems pretty pointless. Not to mention it'd suck being an adult mentally but being physically stuck in a 12 year old body. That just sounds depressing.

...I wonder if this the sort of **** Link went through in Ocarina of Time? :lol:

[Davetello]

That's my point - you'd be an adult mentally but would have to live about 6 or 7 years before you became a legal adult. But, the other side of the coin is that you'd get to relive some of the things you hanker for due to nostalgia - because you wouldn't be becoming a child in 2015, you'd be a child again in the 70s, 80s, 90s, whatever era someone was young in. It might be worth taking because you will grow up again anyway, but the opportunity to relive one's adolescence is unique.

I never even thought about that. More evidence of why Ocarina is a masterpiece - it prompts questions like that.

[Prowler]

That's my point - you'd be an adult mentally but would have to live about 6 or 7 years before you became a legal adult. But, the other side of the coin is that you'd get to relive some of the things you hanker for due to nostalgia - because you wouldn't be becoming a child in 2015, you'd be a child again in the 70s, 80s, 90s, whatever era someone was young in. It might be worth taking because you will grow up again anyway, but the opportunity to relive one's adolescence is unique.

I never even thought about that. More evidence of why Ocarina is a masterpiece - it prompts questions like that.
Would suck for someone with the mind of an adult to socialize with other teenagers, though. I doubt you'd have much fun at school. Your teachers would probably label you a prodigy or something, though. :lol:

[Cure]

Nah, I'm cool with the way things have turned out.

I wouldn't do it if I could fix mistakes, either.

[Davetello]

It's fun to ponder anyway :lol:

[Davetello]

Nah, I'm cool with the way things have turned out.

I wouldn't do it if I could fix mistakes, either.

Fair enough. But is there no part of you that would like to relive some of your childhood? You'd still grow up and live the adult life you're presently content with anyway.

"I wouldn't do it if I could fix mistakes, either"

I can see why some wouldn't. It would make life seem very artificial if you had prior knowledge of events - would seem less substantial, less spontaneous somehow.

[Cure]

Fair enough. But is there no part of you that would like to relive some of your childhood?

Nope. Wouldn't be worth it.

[Davetello]

Fair enough.

[Prowler]

Fair enough. But is there no part of you that would like to relive some of your childhood? You'd still grow up and live the adult life you're presently content with anyway.

"I wouldn't do it if I could fix mistakes, either"

I can see why some wouldn't. It would make life seem very artificial if you had prior knowledge of events - would seem less substantial, less spontaneous somehow.
More importantly, mistakes help you learn and mature. So going back in time to fix them is kinda pointless and most likely detrimental to your growth as an individual.

[CyberCubed]

I'd probably do it to see my grandparents again, but only if I can also come back to the present day at will.

[Slade]

I'm trying to answer based on your specific scenario. So I can go back and relive my youth at 12(just using your example) and remember my adult life, but I can't change anything?

If that's the case then no.
Or am I off?

[Prowler]

Although... I wouldn't mind being a kid or a teenager again for a short period of time like, I dunno, a week.

[Powder]

I'd like to relive some random days of 2006, which was the most fun year ever, though I was 15-16 then.

I don't quite long for being a child again but I'd love to re-viist the 90's on any given day, just to soak up the culture that I miss so much. Go to KB toys where the shelves were lined with TMNT, hit the arcade, eat some extinct food products, watch old school Nickelodeon, be a mall-rat, all that kinda stuff.

[Peanut]

No. The idea of people wanting to go back and "relive" their nostalgic youth is pretty sad to me. Creating fond memories is pretty much all there is to living and time is increasingly running out for each and every one of us. Create new memories and live for now, not for the long distant past. It seems like so many people from out generation are obsessed with their youth in a way I find frightening. There's nothing wrong with nostalgia at all, it's fantastic, but I feel that living in the past is unhealthy.

[Wesley]

No. I probably wouldn't do anything different. Like Frsnk Sinatra said, I did it my way.

[Prowler]

No. The idea of people wanting to go back and "relive" their nostalgic youth is pretty sad to me. Creating fond memories is pretty much all there is to living and time is increasingly running out for each and every one of us. Create new memories and live for now, not for the long distant past. It seems like so many people from out generation are obsessed with their youth in a way I find frightening. There's nothing wrong with nostalgia at all, it's fantastic, but I feel that living in the past is unhealthy.
People like that usually aren't very satisfied with their current lives. And thus end up looking back at their past with rose colored glasses. I used to be a lot like that. There's plenty of good stuff out there right now. One just gotta look for it.

[Candy Kappa]

If I can't time travel like the Doctor, I don't wanna time travel :lol:

[pennydreadful]

Hell no. It sucked enough having to deal with some people the first time around - who'd want to go through it again? Not to mention school again. *barf*

[Prowler]

Hell no. It sucked enough having to deal with some people the first time around - who'd want to go through it again? Not to mention school again. *barf*
You know, when I was a kid and complained about school and homework, people of my parent's generation and older would always tell me that the best years of a person's life were her school years. Maybe because back in their day people would immediately start working once they left school, which was quite early.

[ZariusTwo]

Go back to my youth and get beaten up by girls all over again? No thanks, although least this time I'd have advance knowledge one of those that did that had feelings for me and might reciprocate.

[Jester]

Nah, I'm cool with the way things have turned out.

I wouldn't do it if I could fix mistakes, either.
WLzJAebfEIg
The best (read:ONLY GOOD!) part of that movie....well that and maybe Row Row Row Your Boat.

[plastroncafe]

Oh easy. I would go back to 1992. Portsmouth New Hampshire. Turtle con. Not only would I get everyone involved in the turtles to sign my lithograph, but I'd buy the bronze bust of Leonardo from AC Farley himself. I have regretted not doing those two things since then.

most of the rest of my childhood and youth best lived only once, but I have always regretted the Turtle con thing..

[BubblyShell22]

If I could do this, I would just to go back to the days where my sister actually acted like a decent human being rather than the evil b*tch she is now. I have to admit, my childhood was awesome, but I think the thing that I miss the most is the closeness I had with my sister. We were like best friends, and it sucks that it's no longer like that between us.

[Jephael]

I would love to go back to my youth and do things right. I'd make friends with all the girls I liked in high school long before they got boyfriends and I would definitely be more involved in extracurricular activities!

[Bry]

Two options: if I could go back and talk to myself at 12? Sure.

I wouldn't try to change much. But I'd like the chance to tell my younger self that things will be all right, that I can and should own who I am and try a little harder to hang in there when everyone seemed to want to make me their personal social-war target.

It's never easy, but eventually your individual personality becomes an asset, and I spent way too much time trying to be something different in order to fit in and avoid harassment and judgment. The minute I became comfortable with who I was was the first time I felt really free.

If I had to go back and stay there to reshape my own history? No way. I've gotten to a happier place now than I ever expected to -- not perfect, but far beyond anything I expected back then -- and my mistakes and the lessons I learned because of them are what led me here.

I've got a lot of nostalgia for what I loved in those days, but I'd never want to actually go back to them. Things weren't exactly easy - I dealt with bullying a lot as a kid - but it made me who I am and gave me the priorities and perspectives that mean a lot to me now. I'd never trade that.

[TheCanadiandrome]

I'd probably do it to see my grandparents again, but only if I can also come back to the present day at will.

See dude, that just about made me cry when I read it!

That would be my idea in a heart beat! Not a single day goes by where I don't think about either one of my Grandfathers or my Grandmother who passed away in 2013, and how lovely it would be not only to get to see them again but to hold them, hug them, be with them!

Also, my dear cousin who passed from cancer at 17 in 2008, my Uncle who died in 2007! To see them again, I never got to say goodbye to either one of them before they died! :cry: :( :tsad: