If you could go back in time five years, what one thing would you tell yourself?

[The Spectacular Professor]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]"Look at me. See how awesome I am? Make it happen." [I]*shot*[/I]

Would he take me seriously? I'd be extremely disappointed if he did.[/FONT]

[chibi-master]

[quote name='Allamorph'][FONT=Arial]The tricky thing about this situation is that you have to be careful how to balance good advice with knowledge that'll irrevocably change your experiences and therefore your personality, rendering your mission of warning/insight nonexistent. You end up getting stuck in an infinite loop.

Causality is fun![/FONT][/QUOTE]

But I thought the creator of this thread said that there would be no such risk... Did I misread?:confused:

[Allamorph]

[quote name='chibi-master']But I thought the creator of this thread said that there would be no such risk... Did I misread?:confused:[/quote]
[FONT=Calibri]Nah. I'm not talking about if you touched yourself and the resulting paradox imploded existence. I'm talking about the information transferral itself.

Like, take the Terminator series. The reason it works with the time travel stuff is because the future isn't actually changing at all, merely ensuring John Connor's survival; John sent his friend through to meet his mother, and then John was concieved as a result. If Connor hadn't sent his friend through, he wouldn't have been born, so in that respect the time travel was necessary.

But five years ago no one showed up and told you what to do with your life, so if you went back and said something to yourself, left yourself a note, or even if you sent someone else in your place to avoid the whole destroy-all-life stuff that might happen, the information itself would alter your behavior patterns, which would then affect your decisions, which would then alter the chain of events that led to you travelling backwards and telling yourself stuff since it would no longer be guaranteed that you sent yourself the identical information, which would then reset the chain, and so the infinite loop is born.

Fun to visualise.[/FONT]

[chibi-master]

[quote name='Allamorph'][FONT=Calibri]Nah. I'm not talking about if you touched yourself and the resulting paradox imploded existence. I'm talking about the information transferral itself.

Like, take the Terminator series. The reason it works with the time travel stuff is because the future isn't actually changing at all, merely ensuring John Connor's survival; John sent his friend through to meet his mother, and then John was concieved as a result. If Connor hadn't sent his friend through, he wouldn't have been born, so in that respect the time travel was necessary.

But five years ago no one showed up and told you what to do with your life, so if you went back and said something to yourself, left yourself a note, or even if you sent someone else in your place to avoid the whole destroy-all-life stuff that might happen, the information itself would alter your behavior patterns, which would then affect your decisions, which would then alter the chain of events that led to you travelling backwards and telling yourself stuff since it would no longer be guaranteed that you sent yourself the identical information, which would then reset the chain, and so the infinite loop is born.

Fun to visualise.[/FONT][/QUOTE]

*foams at the mouth* Why do you do this to my head~?! (And still posting out of nowhere...creeper.)

[Allamorph]

[quote name='chibi-master']*foams at the mouth* Why do you do this to my head~?! (And still posting out of nowhere...creeper.)[/quote]
[FONT=Calibri]Even though this is getting really off-topic....

No, the fun part is trying to visualise time from both a past and future perspective. The closest I've come was a sphere of infinite surface area but finite volume. Try [I]that[/I] for a head-trip.[/FONT]

[chibi-master]

[quote name='Allamorph'][FONT=Calibri]Even though this is getting really off-topic....

No, the fun part is trying to visualise time from both a past and future perspective. The closest I've come was a sphere of infinite surface area but finite volume. Try [I]that[/I] for a head-trip.[/FONT][/QUOTE]

[/HATE]

Now for something on subject:

I should probably tell myself not to mutilate my fingers so much just because I can't feel it for some reason. Yeah, it started with snipping a bit of my index finger in Pre-K, and then around my 5 years ago age, I sliced 'em with the thin, sharp lid of a dog food can. But that one was on accident.

[Gavin]

[quote name='chibi-master']I should probably tell myself not to mutilate my fingers so much just because I can't feel it for some reason. Yeah, it started with snipping a bit of my index finger in Pre-K, and then around my 5 years ago age, I sliced 'em with the thin, sharp lid of a dog food can. But that one was on accident.[/QUOTE]

[SIZE="1"]Well 5 years would be just a tad too late in this regard but I'd tell my younger self to try to avoid that hand-stomp in that rugby game that means I now only have partial control over my right ring and small fingers. Of course telling him to avoid that neck injury at 16 which caused me to drop out of high school would also be a given.[/SIZE]

[Justin]

I was 17...hm...I'd say to myself...

1) Follow the voice they've taught you to ignore from day one. Trust me, it's always right.
2) In two years, don't stand by and watch.
3) In three years, just find another damn guitar player, dude.
4) In four years, don't join the Navy.
5) In four years and a couple months, in the event you joined anyway, refuse to ship. You might think you have no choice, but take it from me, until you get to Great Lakes you have all the choices in the world.
6) In round about five and a half years, assuming you shipped anyway, file for failure to adapt before your six month mark.
7) And finally, I know you're not really think in these terms right now, but for God's sake, drop her, get some strange, and never give up on heavy metal.

-Justin

[pax et agape]

Well five years ago I would be 18 and just starting college so I might tell myself, "Reconsider that religion major, the economy is going to crash and you won't find a decent job with it." Then myself would sigh and sign up for a philosophy major.:animeswea

[AnbuKira13]

[FONT=trebuchet ms]I was 19. Daily life either college or work. Eventually I had to chose one or the other.

I'd warn myself to stay in college. Work is good too but by now things woulda been better if I had finished. I'd also warn myself about my attitude. "Your not always right. And yes sometimes you are childish." :P I'd probably also have throw in warnings about certain upcoming boyfriends who should have never been. But eh..

Encouragement wise, I'd tell myself not be afraid to take more chances, things might not work out but if you dont try your never gonna know right? More importantly I would tell myself to keep my head up and not get so down about stuff. Nothing worth doing in life is gonna be easy, and its the hard parts you go through that make you stronger and smarter.

Hmmm suppose it would be a mixed message mostly about then but also some from now. Things still aren't easy but definately better.

As far as would my younger self believe me goes... Not sure how to answer that actually. Its kinda a toss up since I've never been big on accepting advice Im not asking for lol!
[/FONT]

[Nomurah!]

[B]Dear Hunter,[/B]

[I]You need braces. [/I]

[B]Love, Hunter.[/B]

[Skye]

[size=1]Stay the eff away from the redhead who's making googly eyes at you. Go to Clarke Central High School and find the kid named Devon. Avoid misery.

Oh, and pay attention when you take APUSH next year. TRUST ME.[/size]

[Recaldy]

Don't make a gaia account. LONG story. >_>

[Kastom]

I wouldn't tell myself anything.

I've had a lot of experiences in life, both good and bad, and I need all of those to be who I am now. I've lived and experienced a lot of things, and I'm happy how it's all turned out. Telling myself to do something differently in life would be the same as saying I'm not happy with who I am today.

[SunfallE]

[FONT="Lucida Sans Unicode"][COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Oh Kastom, you lie. You would tell yourself to not wear a shirt more often. =P[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Korey]

[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"][SIZE="1"][COLOR="Navy"]This is an interesting topic. I'd be fifteen so.....

Since everyone's making a list instead of one thing, I think I'll just put a couple of things.

Keep on truckin. Everything in life happens for a reason and there's nothing you can do about things that aren't going to happen yet. Oh and don't get involved with a woman named Kendra. Your life will be better off for it.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[Nathan]

[FONT="Arial"]I'd need more than five years if I were to tell myself that playing with matches in the old barn is not a bright idea. Other than that, not much else I'd want to say. [/FONT]

[Kastom]

Ahhhh, you're right Beth. I completely forgot about that.

I would say the most philosophically deep and life-changing words:

"Pants are generally required, but shirts, shirts are always optional."

It would save me the pain of years of pointlessly wearing shirts.

[DeathKnight]

[color=crimson]"When you have that semester long Theology project in Fall of 2009, don't wait until the night before to do it."[/color]

[Xyandar]

I would have been 16 and i would have told myself to practice driving morw while i had my liscence(expired)
I would have told myself not to take up smoking and toking and drinking'
I would have hung out with my old friends who have passed away in the past 5 years and let them know how much they mean to me.
I would have told myself to stick with school

And id know its me...itd be obvious.