I'd be 18. I'd possibly tell myself to never ever ever get student loans. But then my life wouldn't turn out the way it has so far. Hrm. Idk I mostly hate the idea of going back in time. Childhood sucked.

I like yours. It doesn't screw with timelines.

It's hours and hours of yelling while powering up, sure, but I only say that because I'm a betch. 😆

You'd be your current age, you'd just have a time machine.

Tell George Lucas not to sell Lucasfilm to Disney and Kathleen Kennedy.

I'd tell George Lucas to not release the Special Editions or make the prequels and to consider making literally anything else.

(I can't remember if the first special edition came out before 1996, in 1996, or after 1996, so at a minimum, I'd tell him to just not make the prequels.)

But I think for real, I'd probably just do that thing where I just bet on sports.

the prequels are less frustrating for me and I love a lot of hte lroe that came out of them so I wouldn't to uch them.

Looks like I have 5 years to infiltrate al-Qaeda and stop the 9/11 attacks.

Well if I'm this age I would try to invest some money somehow. Then come back and do something good with it.

I love my career but I'm crap at making/saving money. Good-paying gigs are few and far-between. Having a nest egg would be very helpful.

That’s fifteen twenty-five years ago!
Nothing I wish I could change was close to happening yet then!

[edit]corrected subtraction error pointed out by IKM below.[/edit]

My dude I hate to break it to you but it's 25 years ago.

I guess it breaks the spirit of the thread but I'd use it to hang out with my dad since we'd be the same exact age. He's still alive now, it's not like that -- I just think it would be an interesting experience.

If you started in 1996 with foreknowledge you could probably get enough money up eventually to buy Lucasfilm yourself. From there you could pull a Marvel and get that universe pumping out a lot of movies/shows based directly on the source material.

@IKM~~:
You wrote:

Oops!
You’re right!
My daughter is 25 now. 15 years ago she would have been 10 and I’d have known her 7.5 years.
...
I was thinking of the right year; I just subtracted wrong.
I almost never make that kind of mistake unless money is involved!

Those sports bets and apple stock ideas wouldn't interest me, I'd just obtain every shadowless Charizard card that I can.

@IKM~~:
You wrote:

As you might have guessed from the similarity of our names, Charizard is actually my third cousin once removed (descending).

If this was me just becoming 6 years old, I'm pretty sure my brain wouldn't be able to handle 24 years of knowledge and experience that suddenly rushed into it.

At first I might start making plans to take advantage of stock like Apple, Microsoft and Google, maybe even begin trying to figure out a way to prevent 9/11.

But quickly, I think, I'd become preoccupied with my six year old life, dominating in school academically and socially. Maybe it would all become so boring and unimportant, though, that I would begin checking out of all of that.

Probably play a lot of Gameboy and watch a lot of my favorite tv shows as they came on new and everything. That is to say, nothing major would have changed.

I think eventually what little things I did change would be enough to cause, via butterfly effect, major changes in history over the next 24 years that would render a lot of my memories, experience and knowledge of the future irrelevant by the time I'm old enough to do anything about it. Plus by then whatever memory would just be whisps of smoke at that point. I'd probably begin to think I dreamed up that other life entirely.

But if we're talking time machine situation, I'd do the investments. Maybe I would also say I'm a psychic, predict the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and then ride that to fame until butterfly effect renders it all moot.

1996? I was 4. At that time I was mostly preoccupied with LEGOS.

Funny story, apparently the guy who bombed the airplane in 9/11 took pilot lessons out of the small private airport in Venice, FL, the same city I was living at the time. We drove by that airport several times. IDK where the guy lived, but I spent my childhood in the same city. If I could figure out the guy and convince him not to fly the damn plane...

Damn, that would make a GREAT movie!

I'd be in second grade. If I went back to being an 8 year old and reliving it while knowing what I know today, I guess wouldn't mind. But it would be weird. Would I still think like an 8 year old or have an adult brain in a child's mind?
I'd take school more seriously and not be as weird.. and get my degree faster

But as an adult, no reason to really go back then.

I think I'd care even less about school than I did then, and definitely not let it stress me out anymore. I'd know what was coming up and I'd try not to shake the boat too much. Instead I'd just try to let things benefit me in subtle ways.

I wouldn’t change much in 1996.
I’d have more to change in 1986.