Nope, I have not been time traveling. But I have been thinking about it lately after someone posted this question on facebook the other day:
If you could time travel and you could only choose one, would you go back or forward?
I am going to give a few more parameters and then I am going to put this out there in the comments and add in a little poll just for fun.
1. If you go back you can take people with you.
2. If you go forward you will not have the ability to take back any information for financial gain. Sorry, no winning lotto numbers. I need to remove the financial piece to make it a viable choice. Since that is making you all rather cranky I will let you take people with you into the future as well.
Me? I would want to go back. Having my kids in college, I would love to go back to one of those Sunday morning brio trainfests with my son and REALLY appreciate his undying love for building those tracks in a figure eight. Sit and color all afternoon on a rainy day, or play with perler beads with my daughter. Or bathe my babies and smell their hair one more time when they are wrapped in a towel. Or be 17 and jump in the car for an impromptu road trip. I would love to see my grandparents again, and have them meet my kids all grown up. Be a camper again!! Oh what I would not give for one more summer in the adirondaks.
Relax, this is not some old person’s pondering on the past. This is a go back and really taste it all for a little while. Stop and smell the roses, the coffee, the ocean and everything else in between. And honestly, if there is something unpleasant in my future, I would rather not know. Equally – if not more so – if there is something amazing which I would prefer to believe, I want to be surprised.
Ok you lurking commenters, come on out of the woodwork and give me your thoughts. At the very least, weigh in on the poll.
i could cry but i don't have time 
I’d go back in time to when I was 16 and 17 and take time to savour all the places I travelled. USSR in 1988? Yeah, mostly spent the time looking for cute boys. Winter Olympics in 1988? Scouting for cute boys. France in 1989? Are those cute boys over there? I managed to soak up a few sights and did realize how lucky I was, but mostly I think I was a bit of a ding dong! I’d like a do-over.
but are you still looking for the cute boys?
I’d travel back to the past for ALL of the same reasons that you mentioned! It would be great to go back, knowing what I know now (especially the part about how fast life moves) and really appreciate all of those little moments. I too would love to smell the baby shampoo on my children’s heads as I rock them to sleep and for my grandparents to meet my children! I’m not as sure about being 17 again, though! Maybe 20.
What a great poll! You’ve inspired me (again!) to try to appreciate the present a little more now.
Thank you!
thanks for you kind words. i was inspired to write this by a friend who posted the question on facebook. i guess it is all a little pay it forward.
thanks for reading.