November 9, 2025
If you’ve ever fantasized about time travel, you’ve probably imagined something noble, stopping a war, warning the world about climate change, or preventing a historical tragedy.
But let’s be honest. If time travel actually existed, most of us wouldn’t be fixing world events. We’d be doing something petty.
So, today’s Question of the Day is:
If time travel existed, what incredibly petty thing would you change?
The Honest (and Slightly Shameful) Answer
I’d go back to 1984 and buy $5000 worth of Apple stock. Then I’d make sure my past self never found out about it. At least not until I was 50.
I love the idea of my older self just discovering one day that I’ve been secretly rich all along. That’s the kind of chaotic good energy I want in my life. If I didn’t know I was rich, I could live my life the way I’ve already lived. Learning all the life lessons, knowing the right way to use all that money.
And if you think that’s petty that I want myself to suffer and struggle, it is. But that’s the point.
Petty time travel is one of humanity’s most underrated fantasies. We don’t dream of rewriting history; we dream of rewriting our own small embarrassments. We’d fix the time we said something stupid, undo that haircut we swore would “change everything,” or actually hit save before our computer crashed.
Why the Petty Stuff Matters
The funny thing about those tiny regrets is that they never really leave us. They hang out in the background of our memories like uninvited party guests, reminding us we’re human.
If I could go back, I wouldn’t erase the big things, the heartbreaks, the losses, the screwups that taught me something. I’d erase the small stuff: the one-liners I didn’t say fast enough, the argument I lost because I thought of the perfect comeback ten minutes later, the time I confidently pronounced “quinoa” wrong in front of ten people.
But maybe the reason we can’t time travel is because we’re not supposed to. Those little cringes are the price of growth. Without them, we’d never get better, funnier, or wiser. We’d just be perfect little robots who never learn the hard way, and how boring would that be?
The Butterfly Effect of Being Human
Even if time travel did exist, we all know how that story ends. You go back to change one thing, say, telling your 2009 self not to buy a Blackberry, and suddenly you’ve erased your kids, your career, and the existence of oat milk.
Maybe the lesson here is that our pettiness is a harmless fantasy, but our reality is a masterpiece of chaos. Every misstep, every cringe, every “I wish I hadn’t” somehow led to the exact version of us reading this sentence right now.
So yeah, if time travel ever becomes real, I’ll be in line to buy my Apple stock. But after that? I think I’ll come home and live with my imperfect, unedited timeline.
Because the truth is, there’s something satisfying about knowing you survived your own mistakes, no time machine required.
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💬 Your Turn
So… if time travel existed, what incredibly petty thing would you change?
Share your answer in the comments or on social—your weird little truth might be someone else’s comfort zone.
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