You've got a time machine

[Jonluw]

Hiya escapists.

You have recently come into possession of a time machine. However, you could only afford the shitty one-use-only, back-in-time only, model, and the only events in history you are able to alter are the ones you were personally involved in.
Additionally, you must travel at least as far back as your sixteenth birthday, for some reason, and you can't travel further than the date of your own conception.
A magical genie will hang around making sure you don't buy lottery tickets or tell yourself about the future stock market or any such stuff.

So. What do you do?
What would you change about your childhood?
For the sake of the scenario, you'd be able to magically undo things you wouldn't normally be able to do anything about.

Spoiler: Me

I can't think of a particular event that needs undoing, so I'd probably tell myself that "alcohol is nice for socializing and all, but don't bother getting proper drunk more than once."

 

[Rowan93]

I'd be too worried about consequences to actually change any part of my own past, so I'd basically have no use for this kind of time machine. I'd just sell the machine to someone who doesn't worry about this.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Tell myself to take that extra year of Spanish class.

Also... if it's the shitty one-use-only time machine, wouldn't it be a one way trip and you'd find yourself stuck in the past?

 

[Jonluw]

Tell myself to take that extra year of Spanish class.

Also... if it's the shitty one-use-only time machine, wouldn't it be a one way trip and you'd find yourself stuck in the past?

Obviously, the one use is a two way ticket.

 

[Kordie]

For me, school first THEN the army. Working on doing it the other way around now, and 5 years in the army has made all my courses invalid for consideration. Now I get to spend a year retaking High school level courses. Or conversly, I could have done both at the same time with officer training.

 

[Lionsfan]

Like most questions asked on The Escapist, this can be answered with a comic

Spoiler

But seriously, I would tell myself to cut loose, don't care what these people think. Like care a little bit, but in 1-4 years you won't have to see anybody you don't want to see, so what does it matter what they think of you?

 

[Guffe]

No idea what I would do...
Go back to my 12th birthday and tell myself to start learning french and german when I had the chance. Maybe, not sure...

 

[Scarim Coral]

Probably the year before I had ingrowing toenails problem so that I can warm him/ myself to NOT trim his toenail too short and keep it straight not round!.

Well it's either that or any younger version of myself to warm him that he must get a summer job when he finish High School to start Uni despite how much he want to be lazy on that summer!

 

[Naroiden]

I would punch my fifteen years old version. Maybe he learns why he is wrong with that.

 

[Dango]

I'd go back in time and tell myself to being a dick.

 

[ElPatron]

Go back in time and prevent it from being finished.

Only reasonable option, going back that much time would create myriads of ways to screw my life.

 

[Agow95]

Well I'm 16 right now so if I had to go back to before my last birthday it's not that bad, in anycase I would go back and give myself all my money so in that timeline I'd have double money, and then when that timeline version of me decides to give himself all his money, it'll be three times the original amount, eventually I'll destroy the economy and be the single most hated human being ever but I'll have been fucking rich for a month or two.

 

[Richardplex]

Eh, both my failures and successes define me, and time travel won't give me any more happiness. I'd let it gather dust.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I'd go back in time, clearly tell my young self that "I'm you, FROM THE FUTURE!!!" (complete with fog machine and maybe some sweet laser lights) and proceed to come up with some bullshit horror story to terrify me into never touching junk food or soda. It'd make losing weight a hell of a lot easier if the problem didn't exist in the first place.

 

[Trivun]

I wouldn't do anything. Not because I'm boring or anything, but because I saw the Butterfly Effect. The first movie, that is, not the crappy sequels 'in-name-only'. So yeah. I don't want all my friends to end up dead or mind-raped or whatever...

Otherwise, I'd probably tell myself to man up and stop being a pussy for my entire secondary school career. And actually ask Faith out when I'm at uni, not keep letting her slip away for three years until I finish uni and move back home away from her...

 

[Something Amyss]

I'd go back in time to right before I went back in time and tell myself not to go back in time.

Survive that, Universe!

 

[FalloutJack]

You've got a time machine

HOW THE HELL DID YOU KNOW?!

I mean...uhh...nevermind!

OT: My childhood isn't the problem. It's people around it that were the issue.

 

[Maeta]

Make sure I didn't injure my leg when I was a kid so that I could get in shape and be good at sport, then become an international athlete and bag Lisa Dobriskey before Ricky Soos did...

 

[Ruedyn]

Kill the kid who bullied me in daycare. Fuck you!

Not really anything else to do :\