There are so many good philosophical questions when it comes to time travel – where would you go, what would you do, who would you talk to – but this one is a little bit different.

If you traveled back to 1985 and then, for whatever reason, couldn’t time travel back, what would you do re-living (or living for the first time) your way back to the present?

These 16 people have some pretty great answers!

16. A popular choice.

Bet on sporting events.

Honestly, even just betting on run of the mill games you remember would be solid

And invest in apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google Bitcoin, and GameStop

Maybe hold on myspace into the 2010s just to make it look real.

15. Leaping a lot of hurdles.

Be a bit f**ked really, no id, no money, nowhere to live, everyone you know thinks you’re 37 years younger.

I mean, it wouldn’t be impossible, but it would definitely take a specific skill set and a lot of luck.

Best case scenario? You’re able to convince authorities that you have amnesia or something and you’re basically some abandoned John Doe with nothing tying you to anything. Eventually you might get some free help getting you a new ID, social security number and birth certificate.

Up until that point though? Good luck either pan-handling or working as labor ‘under-the-table’ or finding some “other” method to make cash.

Speaking of cash… even if you keep your wallet stuffed with cash, all of it would be useless since there was that big paper money redesign.

So yeah, basically you would be pretty screwed.

14. He never misses!

Become a TV personality that predicts famous people’s demises.

I’d show up on site with camera crews and say “Send your thoughts and prayers, today will be the last day of this person’s life.”

Imagine the insanity after like 10 in a row.

13. Bad luck.

I just realize, it is 1985… I live in what used to be East Germany. They will think I’m some fucking west German spy.

No ID in a country with one of the tightest controls imaginable.

12. That seems rude.

Steal everyone’s music before they could write it.

11. Stay alive.

Steer clear of Oklahoma City and NYC, at the appropriate times.

Or better yet, try to prevent or help, assuming we can alter timelines. Of course, preventing 9/11 might bring about nuclear armageddon, as Family Guy depicted

10. Then just wait to cash the check.

Buy Apple stock?

I remember it was almost a penny stock in the late 90’s. I said 1995 just for symmetry.

9. That’s one day sorted.

See Back to the Future in the cinema.

Excellent movie and it would be fun to experience it with a room full of people on their first time.

8. Don’t miss out.

I’d be hitting all the greats before they got huge. Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, etc.

So many awesome shows to see in shitty little clubs and stuff before they catch their big breaks.

7. Show me the money.

Trade stocks and “gamble” a lot

6. Some very personal choices.

I think I‘d write a lot of “prophetic“ books about the future and become the weird recluse with a pretty good idea how society is going to wreck itself.

For real, though, I‘d try to meet with a lot of my older (and currently deceased) relatives and try to have a few semi–casual conversations with them. Try to find out who they were, what kind of live they‘ve led and so on. Maybe make up some lie about being a chronicler, hired by some distant relative. As an adult I have so many questions about my family that I‘d like some answers to.

Other than that, I think I would lead a quiet life somewhere in a village, not caring much about things in the world at all. I don‘t care that much about the events back in the day, but without the distractions of the modern day I could try to hone a few skills. Be a woodworker or something like that. And finally get a dog.

5. That would be wild.

I would go watch myself be born.

Then bet all my money on the bears winning the super bowl.

4. A very real answer.

Make better decisions: Talk my then-husband into getting help for his alcohol addiction so he wouldn’t die of alcohol related cancer a few years later.

Enjoy my small children who would then grow up in a healthier home. Forgive my parents. Live peacefully and redeem the time.

3. A Catch-22.

Try not to interfere with my parents’ teenage lives and endanger my existence.

2. A paradox, for sure.

I would do the opposite. Neither of my parents had any business having kids.

But if you interfere, you no longer exist. Meaning you couldn’t go back to interfere, meaning things would proceed as they normally would. Which would lead to you going back…

1. Worst case scenario.

Probably get arrested, unless I can discreetly dispose of my wallet. Every paper currency larger than a one dollar bill has been dramatically updated since then, and even the smaller denominations are going to have absurd dates on them.

Add to that a bunch of ids and credit cards with bad dates and suspiciously advanced security enhancements, and I’d be lucky if I wasn’t presumed to be an absolutely abysmal Soviet spy.

 

I am going to have to take some time to think about how I would spend these blissful 80s and 90s years a second time…

If you’ve got an answer ready, I want to hear it down in the comments!