You woke up this morning and it’s April 25th 2002. The last 23 years have all just been a dream. With all the knowledge you have now, what are you doing today?
Posted by aamabkra@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 451 comments
I’m going to my to see my dad again. Spend all day with him and have a meaningful conversation. Give him a big hug and tell him I love him because I didn’t know enough of that back then. I’ll always regret not spending enough time with him. Now he’s gone.
Then stop being some dumbass stoner kid and actually apply myself in college. Definitely remember to avoid meeting my future ex-wife that’s for sure. Oh and I’d also invest in Apple and Amazon.
HailToTheVictors@reddit
Stop drinking.
r_u_dinkleberg@reddit
Withdraw my app and DON'T go to college. Work a year and enjoy being out of school. Even 1yr later, still don't go to THAT college, do a trade school instead. Dodge the bullet that led to wasting my 20s in an unhappy unfulfilling marriage that ends anyway - Get the hell out of the USA instead. And buy $AAPL.
Scalytor@reddit
Very first thing is cry because my daughter is gone and will never exist again. Any tiny change in the timeline means she doesn't get to exist. I can have some kid, but not her.
Second thing is panic because finals are coming up and there's no way I remember enough from 23 years ago to pass. So I'm also flunking out of my senior year of college in this new timeline! yay....
captmonkey@reddit
Yeah, this is a nightmare scenario for most parents. "Sorry, your kids were a dream and never existed. Anyway, it's 2002, have fun!"
r_u_dinkleberg@reddit
🤷 I tend to forget you exist. As my peers in my age group started to have kids, I replaced them all with early 20 somethings. So still today. None of my friends have kids. And I like it that way.
Uhh_JustADude@reddit
That assumes you’re not going to have children with your future partner. Whomever they might be, they won’t be that different to whomever your current children are.
nodogsallowed23@reddit
I feel like only someone without kids would be able to say this.
Uhh_JustADude@reddit
I have kids. Don’t think I couldn’t have them again with my wife if I got to start again.
nodogsallowed23@reddit
Ok then, I think you’re missing what everyone is saying then.
Uhh_JustADude@reddit
That there’s some unspoken rule that if I go back in time any children I have with the woman who is now my wife won’t be my current kids?
nodogsallowed23@reddit
It’s not an unspoken rule. It’s science.
captmonkey@reddit
Men have a whole bunch of sperm cells to fertilize an egg. If there's the slightest deviation in anything you do, like literally your physical body is in a slightly different place, the same sperm cell doesn't fertilize the same egg. So, the same child isn't born.
It's basically "We're going to kill your children but give you some new ones in exchange. That's fine, right?"
Uhh_JustADude@reddit
I see, in this scenario we’re not opening on the principle that your future children are the same, biologically, as your current children.
I was assuming you meant they would somehow not be the same because your newly improved living conditions or environment would be different.
captmonkey@reddit
Unless I was able to redo every single action exactly as I did before (and if I was able to do that, what's the point of going back?), then my kids won't exist. "Yeah, you lost your kids whom you've loved for years, but here's some new kids instead!" Isn't much of a comfort.
bighaircutforbigtuna@reddit
This was my first thought too. I would be devastated and probably do something, uh, drastic!
MexiBulldog@reddit
Also the first thing I thought, my daughter was a dream and the chances of us being together again is nil. Even if I have another girl and name her the same name … it wouldn’t be her
SFAFROG@reddit
Oof, I didn’t think of this. I was like I’m going to transfer schools and not end up with so many student loans and graduate on time. I would never have met my wife or had my kids…
idle_isomorph@reddit
Ugh, this is the monkey's paw. I would love to have left my ex-husband back then, when he first began to abuse me and disappear on drugs benders after stealing things. I would clearly be better off not sticking around for 12 more years of his shit.
But I couldn't possibly part with my kids. If only there was a way to have them and not have the ex-husband ever in the picture. Cause I couldn't choose a life without them
The_Lost_Jedi@reddit
I'd be in good position on the other hand, because I could fix my romantic fuckups and maybe actually get married and have kids.
Meanwhile, I was out of college, and about to enter the Army - but I remember enough to do very well with it all, as well as to position myself financially for a much better future.
NeptuneHigh09er@reddit
Yes, it would be a nightmare. Even if I made sure I was in the right scenario to meet my husband, there’s no way I’d have my kids. Also, I met him in college and I don’t how well we’d mesh now with my 40+ year old brain.
Then I guess I’d invest right and try to good.
notsureifxml@reddit
yeah i met my wife for the first time in 02 in college but we didnt date or marry for 10 more years. i think the core goal would be to get with her again but earlier and knowing what i know now about her. having different kids with the same person would definitely mess with my head though
NSA_Chatbot@reddit
I'd be in about the same boat.
Infinite money glitch possible, but I'd fail out of school and my children would be beyond reality. Not worth it.
BigManWAGun@reddit
How good is your memory? 23 years of scripted Dejavu coming right up.
sinchsw@reddit
Not enough people consider their kids or any un-born in this scenario. I would mourn the loss for quite some time.
Then switch to a different college and try to remember dates and locations to save friends and family from future horrible situations.
C4bl3Fl4m3@reddit
They didn't say you don't know what you knew then, they only said you also have the knowledge you have now. So presumably you'd be able to pass your finals AND have all the knowledge of the future.
mhoke63@reddit
But think of it this way....
You swap timelines here and the new timeline gives you 3 kids you adore to where if your old timeline was swapped, you would be sad because you have the daughter you love, but missing the other 3 kids.
Morriganx3@reddit
My daughter was a few months old in April 2002, so I’m good! Otherwise I guess I’d be desperately trying to recreate the exact circumstances under which she was conceived
Plane_Chance863@reddit
IIRC I'd written most if not all of my finals by April 23, so I'm good 😂
AerialPenn@reddit
Halle berry won an oscar for that!?!? Wow
bobojcd@reddit
Poison the orange man.
Jolly_Ad2523@reddit
Invest in tech stocks, put off grad school, start saving for a house (with a plan to buy in 2009, after the market has tanked), develop an exercise habit, and be more direct/communicative in my relationships. Also: get over myself & start networking/looking at college job boards.
smrtrthanewe@reddit
Why does this 2002 poster look like it was written in 1940?
trulyuniqueusername2@reddit
Dumping my girlfriend, starting jiujitsu, learning to play Dungeons and Dragons, swearing to never go to law school, starting a band, and committing to a life as a writer.
trulyuniqueusername2@reddit
Dumping my girlfriend, starting jiujitsu, learning to play Dungeons and Dragons, swearing to never go to law school, starting a band, and committing to a life as a writer.
boyd125@reddit
Going to buy a large amount of Apple stock.
kellkore@reddit
Investing in Apple.
RedbarnRiver@reddit
Ha, April 2002 I’m in the Hindu Kush mountains on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan clearing caves with Taliban fighters looking for Bin Laden.
So probably didn’t have the ability to change very much from that situation.
OpenHouseXXX@reddit
anthonysny@reddit
Enjoy every second of it
sabby55@reddit
Omg Joe Millionaire. That was the only reality show I ever got in to.
jenness977@reddit
slurping noises I'm still traumatized
xt0rt@reddit
Two stars will bold it, and three will italicize and bold it!
jenness977@reddit
Ooooo thanks!!! I mean ooooo thanks!!!
Anonstigram@reddit
I was a junior in college and in peak body form. I would celebrate that gravity had not yet taken hold of my 43-year-old self by jumping a lot (ladies know what I'm talking about). I'd tell myself that guy I'm obsessed with is just a fuck boi and not worth my time (I probably won't listen). I'd make a lot of scrambled eggs. I'd be kinder to myself.
RarelyHere1345@reddit
Good call on the scrambled eggs, always a solid choice
Sharpshooter188@reddit
I mean....scrambled eggs are prettt darn yummy. Lol
Hlodvigovich915@reddit
Remember that just because an attractive young woman is travelling alone with her parents, that doesn't mean that she is single. She could have a long distance boyfriend. Would save me a big heartbreak.
MintedGaming@reddit
Gen-X invader here. Looking at that poster I would remember how cool Training Day was and lament the state of pop music in the early aughts.
LegallyRegarded@reddit
taking out the largest college loan i can and dumping it all into bitcoin. Play some video games and do slightly less partying. Buy the land i missed out on about 15 years ago. Retire on the lake and go fishing.
Global-Jury8810@reddit
I just dropped out of college. The reason? Mom decided she didn’t like that school. I liked the movie Clerks so I got a job working night shift at a gas station. Did that for a year before Home Depot hired me.
anythingspossible45@reddit
Hugging my mom and seeing friends and family
rekep@reddit
Protest the patriot act…..
TrailerParkRoots@reddit
Dumping my high school sweetheart so I don’t end up wasting my 20s.
digitalHalcyon@reddit
This. 100% this. We all knew better in retrospect.
lordskulldragon@reddit
I would do the opposite. This is 2 months before I broke up with her. She eventually became a doctor.
Obvious-Hunt19@reddit
I’m getting back together with mine for the same reason
DripDrop777@reddit
ME TOO
analogy_4_anything@reddit
I would do the opposite and tell the girl I had a crush on that I would, in fact, like to go to prom with her and I’m just really shy.
So many regrets.
toddinphx@reddit
100% same. This was year two of a relationship that lasted for 9. I was 28 when it ended. So many lost years.
DustyTurtle2@reddit
I’m asking my my high school crush out so we dont waste our 20’s. Ended up together in the end.
Felixir-the-Cat@reddit
This is me, too - dump that fucker.
No_Squash_8127@reddit
On the same page! Need my 20s back.
divrekku@reddit
Omg this.
LittleJessiePaper@reddit
Iamoldsowhat@reddit
things happen for a reason. I would not change anything. well. maybe find the guy who paid with bitcoin for a pizza. and have him pay me instead lol
Mantzy81@reddit
Same thing as I did in yesterday in the dream, saying "good morning" to my beautiful wife
alliwantedwasajetski@reddit
Assuming everything plays out exactly the same, I’ve got a Grey’s Almanac’s worth of useless sports knowledge that all of a sudden isn’t so useless. I’m going to Vegas!
Ornery-Ad-9886@reddit
Putting big money on the Pistons to win in 2004 and Red Sox to end the curse that year as well. Retiring to the Bahamas.
notsureifxml@reddit
plus all that free Jordan's furniture!
jdowney1982@reddit
Bet a shit ton on the word series and refurnish my parents entire house with Jordan’s furniture 😂
Anokant@reddit
Those would be huge and hold you until you can put money on the cubs winning in 2016
rgthunder1@reddit
Actually you can do way better and earlier than betting on the Cubs by investing in Bitcoin when it launches in 2009.
BritOnTheRocks@reddit
Leicester City too!
worlds_okayest_skier@reddit
That might be smarter than buying apple stock, you’d have your payout a lot sooner.
Ornery-Ad-9886@reddit
Just gotta be careful the bookies don’t have mob connections…
jesusmansuperpowers@reddit
11/22/63 explores that a little.
Ornery-Ad-9886@reddit
Happen to be reading that right now 😅😅
jesusmansuperpowers@reddit
There’s a certain halftime bet I want to make.. going to be a few years though.
tomahawk66mtb@reddit
In the build up to Euro 2004, I'd put a large bet Greece winning....
jdowney1982@reddit
Bet a whole shit ton of money on the 2004 World Series
Consistent_Mood_2503@reddit
Snagging as much Bitcoin as possible.
SteakJones@reddit
Anyone else kinda weirded out by how little has changed? I mean like,.. there was a massive change in the world between 1945 and 1965… but 20 some years ago it wasn’t that much different than now. Prices have gone up. Salaries are nearly the same… I dunno. Maybe it’s just me. Feels kinda the same but now we have smart phones.
Repulsive-Fuel-5281@reddit
Man oh man... So this exact time in 2002, I had just graduated from a broadcasting school and was about to start a (nearly) 23 year career in radio. I was in a mess of a place financially, with debt collectors after me... (I've long since fixed that and am in great financial shape)
I think I would tell myself to find a debt consolidation place and dig out of that hole. I would tell myself not to stay in my first job for so long. Learn as much as you can during that first summer and then move on to something bigger. I would remind myself of what the true priorities are... And not waste time living so far from my family... Get back home as fast as you can, with whatever job you can find.
Man I'd tell myself so much and could save years of heartache and unnecessary pain.
El_Galant@reddit
Buy Amazon and Nvidia stock and wait 20 years before selling anything.
grimbasement@reddit
Not buying things. The amount of crap I accumulated that I got rid of 3 years ago.... Way better to save money and having savings than to consume.
Abeefrog@reddit
While I'm ok with my current life, I've often wondered what I could've done earlier. So, if I do have a choice, I would've tried better, like being serious about my education, socializing more, taking medicine and therapy, and more.
The negativity will be that the old experiences won't be there for other people. They wouldn't have grown without me there. Would it be better with or without me there? Many said yes, me being there was better. But often, I wondered, was me being there better for them at my expense? Would this new change be better for me but at their expense?
Ha, I'm a big heart and I can't help wondering for others.
paladin_7785@reddit
Mining bitcoin
According_To_Me@reddit
I’d start saving EVERYTHING, invest in Apple, Google, not listen to my parents regarding investing or money in general, then profit. Buy land while it’s still reasonable.
TheDeanof316@reddit
Give me a 1980s Back To The Future Sports Almanac, then we'll talk.
Pyrite13@reddit
Going hunting for an orange game show host before he can wreck the country.
TranceVanCity@reddit
Open a savings account and putting money away every paycheque so that when bitcoin comes into our lives, I can buy as much of it as the money I saved up for it. Muahahaha
jackfaire@reddit
Stay in the Army but still leave my ex-wife.
Peanut083@reddit
Going into Sydney for the ANZAC Day march, then going for drinks afterwards.
On a more serious note, giving myself a mental slap for being so down on myself and having such a negative perception of my own intelligence. Then more actively working my backside off to get out of working at McDonald’s and into uni. I probably would have looked at going into something like Occupational Therapy or Oral Hygiene rather than the teaching degree I finally got around to doing in my early 30s. As much as I had some good times in the RAAF through most of my 20s, I wouldn’t do it again knowing what I know now. Or if I did, I would have taken the offer that Defence Recruiting made to consider going in as an officer more seriously.
AmazingBlackberry236@reddit
23 years later and I’m still driving around in a 91 Nissan.
_plays_in_traffic_@reddit
ayyyyye. i still got a 76 datsun! its just not my daily
douggie84@reddit
Ban-worthy response
_plays_in_traffic_@reddit
i think im getting wooooshed here
ammodramussavannarum@reddit
Same
ConfidentBother6@reddit
Yeah
i_chose_this_shit@reddit
Yup
pee_nut_ninja@reddit
Quick wank?
CrouchingDomo@reddit
Me after waking up in 2002 and we’re watching The Apprentice:
_plays_in_traffic_@reddit
finding some dope thats not fentanyl
Impart_brainfart@reddit
It’s back to sleepless nights and changing nappies for me. Cheers mate.
TiEmEnTi@reddit
My god 2002 was the absolute peak of bad mainstream music
Ohwhatusey@reddit
But on the flip side it was the glory days for the underground scenes…
kaps84@reddit
Hey man, I don't know about you but I saw New Found Glory play a free show in a Best Buy...
johnnloki@reddit
Lose yourself. No one knows. In the End.
It wasn't all bad.
TiEmEnTi@reddit
Two of those three songs are bad lol
JaxxisR@reddit
Trying to figure out whether I have terrible taste in music or you do...
johnnloki@reddit
Yes. Wondering which of the 3 are bad, and which is good?
TiEmEnTi@reddit
There's no such thing as bad QOTSA
johnnloki@reddit
https://youtu.be/vehQABHQ-LQ?si=0YazIVRZidmstqk2
TiEmEnTi@reddit
We probably both do
Haulnazz15@reddit
All those songs are good.
TiEmEnTi@reddit
Calling what are supposed to be the greatest songs of the year "solid" is telling on yourself
jreashville@reddit
It’s only gone downhill from there.
TiEmEnTi@reddit
Hard disagree. Turned around very nicely in 2004.
spookyhellkitten@reddit
It would be too late to stop my ex-husband from joining the Army so I guess I'd just start therapy early because he'd be deploying for OIF1 in just over a year and dealing with my abandonment issues sooner rather than later would probably be a good idea haha
I'd also probably start cosmetology school sooner.
And then I'd stay in Germany instead of coming back to the US. It's a shit show up in this bitch.
HYThrowaway1980@reddit
I’d be reaching the zenith of the worst depressive episode of my life, so in the immediate aftermath of waking up I’d say:
Just keep doing you. Keep looking after your mind. If you don’t feel like leaving the house for a day, don’t. If you want to eat the fridge bare, do. Just don’t do anything stupid.
anonymous_coward69@reddit
🍊🔫
scarlettslegacy@reddit
Dumping my toxic boyfriend that drove me to alcoholism, getting sober, working my ass off to get a house.
tour79@reddit
No mention of Chappell show quotes, this list is incomplete
deanereaner@reddit
Jan 22, 2003 premiere
DreamsAndSchemes@reddit
Dip on the Air Force and go do something fun in the military while getting my degree. My dad was talking out of his ass when he told me 'you can make a career of aircraft maintenance'. Sure, if I hate myself and want to put in work for a license I don't want. I like working on stuff but that ain't it.
Last-Salamander-920@reddit
buying up all that sweet, sweet sub $1 bitcoin
Jaleou@reddit
I'm a month from graduating college. My dad is already terminal, and I'm 9 years from meeting my wife. I know that everything I do leads me to where I am now, and I don't want to lose what I have now.
Try to spend more time with my dad. Make sure he spends more time with my sisters. Make sure my sister gets some therapy earlier. Bet on the BoSox in 2005, buy Google stock when it went up for sale. Still move in 2007, and apply for that job in December. Make friends with the cute girl that starts working next door, and after she rejects me adking her out, stay friends with her for a few years so she introduces me to my wife.
Searchlights@reddit
That information feels much too recent to me. I need to go lay down.
eastern-cowboy@reddit
The information is too recent. The averages they’re using don’t match the numbers Google shows me. Average salary was more like $36k per year back then.
ExploringtheWorld_40@reddit
Become a stock broker/investor….nvidia, Amazon, Apple….it would be glorious….
Snoo_63212@reddit
Loading up on Forever stamps
No_Stay4471@reddit
Buying stock in Monster Energy, Apple, and Amazon.
TeddyAtTheReady@reddit
Getting ready to go to war. Did it suck the first time? Yes. Would I change course and avoid it? Not a chance. I learned so much about the world and myself that I couldn’t have learned any other way. I’ve spent the last 20 years feeling like I died over there with my brothers, but death forgot to collect me. Every day since feels like a bonus day.
I would, however, invest some of that sweet deployment money into something a little more lucrative than the gallons (or liters) of German bier that I would end up consuming post-deployment.
Etiacruelworld@reddit
Investing in stocks, getting my my passport, I have money stockpile so I can head out before 2024 happens
CayseyBee@reddit
Invest in things, leave my ex just after I get pregnant with my daughter instead of when she was 8.
KnottyCatLady@reddit
Kill myself
Strange-Substance-33@reddit
I'd take my 3 month old baby and leave my shitty apartment and psychotic ex, instead of sticking it out for another 2 years.
lynny_lynn@reddit
Goals: I'm going to approach different facets of my life and those that surround me differently in hopes of different outcomes. I'm going to take preventative action in relation to some personal trauma. I'm going to use my time and knowledge wisely in hopes of success. I'm going to be ok.
running_chick@reddit
I’m back in high school and I’m gonna get my shit together and actually focus on school keep working hard at my part time job and save save save. I’m not going to worry about boys or people pleasing. I graduate high school in 04 and I am going to go into dental hygiene!!
tillyspeed81@reddit
Suddenly that old Conan O’Brian skit kept going through my mind…. In the year 2000, in the year 2000!
phoebebuffay1210@reddit
I’m going to go to a concert, ticket prices were still normal and everyone will have lighters instead of phones. Green Day maybe? Phish? Eminem? I wish I could go back for one day.
packetmon@reddit
I am buying 10,000 shares of AAPL @ 0.42 cents per share.
adjust_your_set@reddit
That and preparing to be an early investor in bitcoin
Hamster_S_Thompson@reddit
Investor? Miner
Uhh_JustADude@reddit
Find the chat groups Satoshi was in and join them, build your own mining rig instead and get dozens for next to nothing.
einTier@reddit
Don’t even need to start that early. Just keep an eye out for it in 2009. Back then, you could get free bitcoins from the Bitcoin faucet. Mining was easy or you could just buy 10,000 or so for $100. $1000 strategically placed in 2009 makes you a billionaire by 2017.
Uhh_JustADude@reddit
Not so easily. If one person held that many of them and never sold any from 2009 to 2017 the demand for them would have been driven up the way it did. You’d have so sell many of them logarithmically over time to boost their demand and the subsequent vale of the ones you held, or just hang on to enough coins to be worth $20M or so by 2018.
packetmon@reddit
No bitcoin available on 04/25/2002.
adjust_your_set@reddit
Prepare is the key word there
The_Lost_Jedi@reddit
I'm still kicking myself, because I heard about it in 2010-2011, back when people were still marvelling at the novelty of it, and using multiple bitcoins to buy a single pizza. I thought seriously about setting up my computer to mine it while I was at work/asleep, and maybe buying some, but ended up not bothering. Even if I'd sold them in the late 2010s, I'd have still made millions.
cheeker_sutherland@reddit
Don’t forget to bet on those championships because none of them won yet except for the Pats.
DS3M@reddit
Leaving college immediately and pursuing my dreams
DS3M@reddit
And buying Bitcoin in 2013
disasterman573@reddit
BTC and gold
trailrider@reddit
It was only a couple months before in fall of '01 IIRC that gas was something like \~$1.05 per gal. I remember the first time it was around $1.25 that year. I was shocked it went up so fast and thought it had to be a blurp. That I would wait until next week to top off when it went back down. It never went down. Nowadays, $1.36 seems so naively quaint.
Ok-Potato-4774@reddit
I'd make sure to meet up with my future wife before her future ex-husband does.
longbreaddinosaur@reddit
Buying a ton of Apple and Google stock and then to a Rilo Kiley or Postal Service concert.
mementomori_mg@reddit
Not joining the Army. Never touching alcohol.
BoudiccasWrath79@reddit
I’d have the foresight to move to fucking Canada.
Ok_Witness6679@reddit
Going to play eve online from the start so I can stop injecting skills.
That and make mad money on bets and lnvesting money
NickConnor365@reddit
I'm going to marry her faster.
Interesting-Pea8233@reddit
Hugging my parents again.
Starshot84@reddit
I remember building the LEGO sets for episode II at summer camp
MisRandomness@reddit
288m people… now over 331… dang no wonder everyone is fighting for resources and everything feels way too overpopulated.
Heavy_Pin7735@reddit
Buying $NVDA and shopping for land in Canada
puppycatisselfish@reddit
Ashanti by Foolish slaps
PorgCT@reddit
Convince my family to take out 2nd mortgages, and use that money to buy AMZN and AAPL.
LostSharpieCap@reddit
I used to think a lot about these hypotheticals. Then I had children. I'd do everything exactly the same way. I wouldn't do anything differently because I don't want to change them.
jerslan@reddit
Sail through my Comp Sci degree with my years of experience. Invest in stocks I know will do well while they're cheap and pull out well before they crash. Take advantage of decades spent overcoming internalized homophobia and come out of the closet a lot earlier (didn't do that until 38). Buy a house or condo a lot earlier to get that equity going. Work out a lot more.
MeGustaOnc@reddit
Investing in everything that will make me a multi billionaire! Then help make the World a better place!
johnnloki@reddit
Listening to him talk, there's no other explaining Elon's wealth. He must have had prior knowledge. Elon is Biff.
Original_Telephone_2@reddit
He was born on third base, it's not magic.
ken830@reddit
Third base? I mean he is a white man in this society. That's what you mean by 3rd base?
mhoke63@reddit
A white upper class family in Apartheid South Africa.
ken830@reddit
Yeah. But he came to North America, which still makes him "privileged" as a white man, but less so than in South Africa. He didn't bring tremendous wealth with him. So he started out no better than most other white men here?
WorldsWorstTroll@reddit
They guy walked around with precious stones in his pockets. He was much better off than nearly everyone in North America simply because he was born to the right people.
ken830@reddit
Can you provide a source for this?
WorldsWorstTroll@reddit
https://www.independent.co.uk/space/elon-musk-made-money-rich-b2212599.html
It took two seconds...
ken830@reddit
That's not actually a source.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/11/17/elon-musk-emerald-mine/
monkeyeatfig@reddit
Did you read it?
ken830@reddit
Snopes? Yes. Independent? Yes. Still not citing any sources.
monkeyeatfig@reddit
Alright well snopes confirmed that Elon grew up rich.
ken830@reddit
What? I don't understand what you're reading.
monkeyeatfig@reddit
The snopes article uses the same interview with Errol from the article you are trying to disprove as a legitimate source.
ken830@reddit
Of course. The point of Snopes is that they list and summarize all sources of the claim and try to find an actual base source. The summary of their findings after investigating all possible sources is:
From what we can tell for sure, Elon's estranged dad owned a share of an emerald mine for a few years and that it was largely a failed, unprofitable venture.
From what I can tell, the only investment capital from his dad was about $20-30k as part of a later funding round for zip2.
Everything else is unsupported rumors and claims.
monkeyeatfig@reddit
But that isn't what you are arguing about. You are arguing that Elon didn't have a significant advantage. I don't care that there is no evidence the emerald mine was not a direct source of funds for any businesses.
In the article Eroll actually says the mine collapsed. People certainly died in that mine, and Elon himself sold emeralds to Tiffanies. To call it a failed, unprofitable business venture is beyond obsequious. It was a racist act of unbridled capitalistic exploitation that any decent person would never be involved with. Of course he wants to minimize it, those dead miners had kids too I bet.
ken830@reddit
No idea what you are talking about. You are the one claiming he walked around with emeralds in his pockets. Your source turned out not to be a valid source. You seem to agree, right? Or do you not agree with snopes conclusion?
Emerald mine has nothing to do with Elon. It's his dad's and he was a kid. So, not sure why you're trying to pin some moral shortcomings on him based on that. Elon selling emeralds? You have a source for that?
His advantage is that he is a white man in our society. That's a huge advantage. No need to artificially make stuff up.
monkeyeatfig@reddit
The source is in your golden snopes article.
Are you being intentionally dense? Are you some sort of argue bot?
ken830@reddit
Again. Snopes is listing all the sources of the claim/rumor. They try to verify the claims with actual source material. Their conclusion is that these claims cannot be substantiated. And you're calling me dense?
monkeyeatfig@reddit
Yes well you cropped the summary to minimize the substantiated parts, calling that dense is being generous.
ken830@reddit
What's your point? I quoted the entire summary from the top of the article (directly under the title). This more detailed summary supports that. It doesn't support your claim that Elon has anything to do with the mine. It doesn't support your claim that he carried emeralds in his pocket. It straight up says, "we are unable to find any evidence that showed money generated from his father's involvement in the mine helped Elon build his wealth in North America." And that, was my original claim... That there is no evidence the mine that his father had a stake in in the 80s had anything to do with funding Elon's success. What is your point? You keep calling me dense. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
monkeyeatfig@reddit
You are being intellectually dishonest by intentionally taking a quote from the snopes article out of context and then attaching the title and subtitle below to make it look as though nothing, including the direct quotes from Errol, has been substantiated. Errol made the claim that Elon sold emeralds to tiffanies, not me.
The findings, which appeared directly after your cropped quote (where you placed the ambiguous title and subtitle) do not confirm in any way that Elon had nothing to do with the emerald mine, in fact the article provides quotes from Errol which say Elon grew up rich and even sold some of the emeralds himself.
ken830@reddit
I'm not sure how I'm dishonest. That's the summary written by snopes. You quoted the summary too which says the same thing. Anyone can say anything. That's the point of Snopes. They will present the claim and then figure out if there is evidence or base sources. In this case, they quoted the article with Errol and then provided their conclusion which straight up says no evidence.
monkeyeatfig@reddit
No evidence that the emerald mine was a direct source of funds for elons businesses. That's where you are having trouble. Errol said Elon sold emeralds to tiffanies in a published article, snopes acknowledged that fact.
Brcomic@reddit
Pretty sure it’s Elon in a K hole using an alt.
WorldsWorstTroll@reddit
I had another response that I deleted that basically said that it doesn't matter what I post because fanboys like you will never believe it. But I thought I would play your game. But you are lazy. You didn't even read the link you posted. Embarrassing.
He still doesn't care about you.
Efficient-Log-4425@reddit
Being born on 3rd base and becoming Babe Ruth is magic though.
Lots of people are born on home plate but there is 1 Elon.
mhoke63@reddit
Except he's not Babe Ruth. He has no actual skill in anything other than grifting and lying. He was born to an upper class family in Apartheid South Africa, illegally immigrated to the US via Canada, used family money to invest in a couple businesses, got lucky with those investments, then bought his way into other companies while claiming he founded them, and all of it done with no actual skills. He got incredibly lucky early on and has been grifting his way through life since.
2bad-2care@reddit
Out of curiosity, what part of his immigration was illegal? All I can find is the usual boring process of going to school on a student visa, getting a work visa, then green card, then, after a period or residency, applied for citizenship. Were there some shenanigans during the process I haven't heard about? It would be great to find a loophole to have him deported!
Appropriate-Brush772@reddit
He went to Stanford in 1995 but never enrolled in the graduate studies program he was legally there to do. Like, he could’ve still built his company that he was working on, Zip2, if he was enrolled in classes. But he never enrolled, so he was technically working without the proper visas. He eventually did get his work visa, mostly because the investors into Zip2 were afraid he’d be deported if he didn’t get the proper visa
HipHopGrandpa@reddit
100% but don’t argue with the Reddit hive mind. They loved Elon years ago when Reddit told them to, but know they “know” better.
Additional-Local8721@reddit
Stop suck billionaire dick. They do not care about you and would gladly see you die is it means their stock will go up a quarter of a point.
Same_Soil7237@reddit
Exactly! Trust fund kid
HipHopGrandpa@reddit
lol. A trust fund is why he is the wealthiest man in America? No credit given towards vision, hard work, intelligence. Gimme a break!
Original_Telephone_2@reddit
We credit those things plenty. That's why we deride musk. He has none of those qualities.
Vilavek@reddit
Nothing quite that complicated heh. He and his family just had no ethical qualms about exploiting the human race to their death and detriment in order to gain personal wealth. Pretty basic stuff.
loptopandbingo@reddit
Or.... he was born into family money and had a lot more to start off the game with than billions of other people.
johnnloki@reddit
Or, he bought a ton of crypto, and manipulated crypto currencies via tweets, eventually buying the platform to allow himself to do it with impunity?
loptopandbingo@reddit
He's been rich for longer than crypto has been around.
johnnloki@reddit
Elon's net worth in 2010: 1.2 billion.
Bitcoin in 2010: .4 cents
Elon's December 2024 net worth : 486 billion
Bitcoin in 2024: a wee bit more than 0.4 cents
Tesla's market value/ stock market cap of more than all other auto manufacturers combined is clear and obvious nonsense that's tied to the increase in crypto currencies, which are just a tool for money laundering.
Unrelated news, Ross Ulbright, former owner of silk road found guilty of planning a murder for hire, who facilitated drug sales using bitcoin on the dark web, taking points off the sales.... in 2012 bitcoin values, with all of that bitcoin not being recovered? Yeah, he's out with a pardon.
Still-Expression-71@reddit
But he only did the first sentence
joshhupp@reddit
Yeah, I would figure out the dark web and buy Bitcoin
Open_Pineapple1236@reddit
AAPL at like $0.30 to $0.50 a share. Pre iPod launch and iPhone.
Amazing-Treat-8706@reddit
Yup this is all I would be doing is buying Apple stock. Working my job, putting it all into Apple stock for years from this date.
loptopandbingo@reddit
dumps everything into private prisons, weapons manufacturers, mass surveillance
"I'll start ending these and making the world a better place.... juuuust after I make another billion. Ok, two billion."
Prestigious_Ear_2962@reddit
you need to be super careful though. if people discover you ACTUALLY have knowledge of future events, they'll probably try to dissect your brain.
Geoff-Vader@reddit
All the usual investments stuff everyone has said. And start working on getting dual-citizenship status in New Zealand.
adamempathy@reddit
Waiting outside NBC with a blunt object
CynicalNaif@reddit
I was thinking the same thing but wasn't sure how to word it vaguely enough. Good job!
strippersandcocaine@reddit
I was gonna say making sure Biff doesn’t get the sports almanac
KamuiT@reddit
I don’t think I get this one.
hennsippin@reddit
The Apprentice
ZDarFan@reddit
Thank you for hypothetically taking out Jay Leno
Busy-Cheesecake-9443@reddit
toomuchtv987@reddit
Thank you for your service.
rialucia@reddit
Well, I’d be wrapping up my freshman year of college and getting ready to embark on the absolute torment that was waiting all summer for my Disney internship to start in August. That was an amazing life changing experience and I would probably be crippled with anxiety over stepping on butterflies and changing it. But also wildly excited to get to experience it all over again! I dunno, I’d probably do cartwheels and jumps with my 19 year old body. And get on birth control and hoard condoms so I can go hoe around on said Disney internship. I was way too cautious and didn’t do any of that. Gotta live a little!
SnooRecipes8382@reddit
Buying as much bitcoin as often as possible
Binty77@reddit
Amusingly, 4/25/2002 was the exact date I bought my first nice, new car. I would experience the same day again exactly as it was the first time around.
putitontheunderhills@reddit
Investing enough in Apple, Google, and Amazon that I can buy the Oakland A's before John Fisher moves them out of Oakland.
burritosandbooze@reddit
I’d go to more concerts, learn how to invest in stocks in an early 2000s world lol, and have fun as a single person. I made bad boyfriend decisions in high school.
ApatheistHeretic@reddit
In eat in apple, Google, Amazon, and Nvidia.
Avoid one particular girl in HS.
Go see mom and see if I can convince her to quit smoking.
dogbulb@reddit
Destroy the Internet
CaptJack_LatteLover@reddit
I'm 6 weeks from graduating high school. I would've dumped the boyfriend and started college after graduation instead of wasting another year on the jerk.
nodogsallowed23@reddit
Hug my dog from back then, forever. He’d be only 5 then.
Make sure I show up at the dog shelter on the exact right day to get my next dog in 2008.
And remember everything that made all of my dogs sick so I could prevent and treat it so they live even longer.
dtward@reddit
Spend time with my dad. I was a senior in high school and would be graduated less than a month later. Dad unexpectedly died from a massive heart attack 2 days before my graduation. The last time I saw him was 8 or so days prior to his death when I dropped by his house after school for a 5 minute visit.
As for what I'd do no with the knowledge I have now; who knows?
liquidhonesty@reddit
Literally my 21st birthday!!!! Party time!!
aamabkra@reddit (OP)
Happy birthday!
liquidhonesty@reddit
Mahalo!
2Weelz00@reddit
Loading up on Amazon and Apple stock
blackhawksq@reddit
Buying stock
JeffTheAndroid@reddit
Doing whatever I can to get The Apprentice cancelled.
GustavSnapper@reddit
lol, fuel is infinitely more difficult to produce and somehow is almost twice as expensive as milk 😂
D-ouble-D-utch@reddit
I wouldn't fuck up my first marriage
Montawked@reddit
Get a psych evaluation
Confident-Cellist-25@reddit
Changing my effing major!
ChristyLovesGuitars@reddit
Easiest question in the world: telling my (then current) wife I’m a trans woman, and scheduling a doctor appointment. It’s 2002, so no one fucking cares and the state (and federal) government aren’t even giving it a thought.
Transitioning at 22 rather than 41 would be the single best thing that could happen to me.
xtlhogciao@reddit
Can you elaborate? I get why it’d be better when you were that age, but I’d figure that transitioning in 2002 would be much more difficult (“so no one fucking cares” is what threw me off).
ChristyLovesGuitars@reddit
Being trans wasn’t a political issue in 2002. AFAIK, it was still self-identify, but governments weren’t actively legislator stirring up hate.
idle_isomorph@reddit
I'd say it's a mixed bag and depends where you are.
Some places, like where I live in eastern Canada, have been entirely improved over the years. Back in 2002, the gay pride parade was a couple of pickup trucks and a few dozen enthusiastic folks. People were mostly quietly accepting in the city for LGB people, but there wasn't good knowledge of how to respect pronouns and choices about presentation and passing. Being trans was still a bit Jerry springer, even if folks were OK with people doing whatever they want.
Couple decades later and every corporation, hip church, and the police are swelling the parade to fill the street for at least a few blocks, with plenty of crowds too. My trans kid gets to grow up attending affirming classrooms, with trans role models at his school and summer camp, and not a lick of homophonic treatment (to be fair, we do live in a city. Being in a rural area wouldn't be the same). Plus, my kid's top surgery is publicly funded. For him, the hate and vitriol against trans people seems new and weird and foreign to his experience.
Southern USA, though? I can see where trans people aren't better off now
ChristyLovesGuitars@reddit
I’m in Texas, now. Back then, I’d have been in Indiana. Both are super red and horrible in 2025, but in 2002, Indiana was purple.
Malarkay79@reddit
I hope we all don't get sent back, or else our Apple stock buying plan won't work out like we all hope.
nevys@reddit
Enrolling in childbirth classes and hiring a doula so the birth of our firstborn in the summer isn’t as traumatizing lol
Bellabird42@reddit
Investing in forever stamps
Waitsjunkie@reddit
I'm gonna wait until 2016 and put some money on the Cubbies!
RepresentativeMud509@reddit
I got full Buddy Love. My dick! I can see my dick! Spandex, all Spandex!
jreashville@reddit
Id go find my future wife and start dating her sooner. Change my major to something profitable and finish college. Visit my dad as much as possible while there is still time.
HipHopGrandpa@reddit
23 years of advanced knowledge of the market and you’d…. go back to school?
jreashville@reddit
I gotta get seed capital somewhere.
xt0rt@reddit
Going to a rave and doing some MDMA. That's probably what I did do on this day in history
evetsabucs@reddit
Start steadily buying Apple and Google stock, prep to start buying Bitcoin as soon as it's available, hug my dad, cry, and probably never let him go.
EggManTheRaceFan@reddit
Buying a house with my lunch money!
ChiefBroady@reddit
Stockpiling eggs… I just paid 12$ for a dozen.
Dogrel@reddit
Protect Harambe with my life.
aamabkra@reddit (OP)
That’s when it all went downhill ain’t it
an_ill_way@reddit
First of all, how DARE you say to me that 2002 was 23 fucking years ago.
aamabkra@reddit (OP)
I apologize. Time is a bastard. The days are long but the years are short.
jtk19851@reddit
Putting all my money into Apple and Amazon stock.
Apple was .40 a share Amazon .80
smokiechick@reddit
I would be married for 7 months at this point... I'd divorce him sooner and go looking for my second husband. Invest in Amazon and Apple. Go back to college sooner. Try to convince 2nd husband to move closer to his dad. I'd do all the things I was scared to do because I was worried about disappointing people.
Vintage_Visionary@reddit
"I'd do all the things I was scared to do because I was worried about disappointing people."
badger_breath@reddit
If it is all a dream, bitcoin and other stocks going up be real?
forgetfulsue@reddit
Milk still costs that at Lidl and Aldi.
Far-Seaweed3218@reddit
Dumping my drunken louse of a fiancé at the time. If I would have known then I wouldn’t have married the idiot.
ant-master@reddit
Take budget lessons, get into exercising, talk to a career specialist, go to therapy, and start saving to invest in Google in a couple years.
littlebunnydoot@reddit
id spit in medea benjamins eye, enroll at UF pre-med, buy apple and amazon and make sure i buy bit coin, pop out of grad school and buy a house after the crash somewhere awesome in california, and work part time in medicine helping women with menopause.
tactlessmike@reddit
Breaking an ankle on a training jump to get out of the next 3 deployments.
mlc0914@reddit
It’d be almost end of senior year… so I’d definitely pick a different major when I got to college to actually do something meaningful w my career
roberrrrrrt@reddit
Take a deep sigh of relief
Roland-Of-Eld-19@reddit
Roland-Of-Eld-19@reddit
Upstairs-Storm1006@reddit
Bitcoin
redraider-102@reddit
As I begin to wake up more fully, I’d chuckle at the knowledge I learned over the past 23 years and realize it was all nonsensical dream logic. Like, for some reason, we all lived on Earth instead of Mars.
207Menace@reddit
Getting my passport, joining greenpeace and leaving the USA. 💀
divrekku@reddit
That was spring of my senior year of high school but I was fucking around taking 1 easy class in running start (free college) and playing a lot of Xbox. I would have loaded up on a full free college course load, ran away from my situationship at the time (instead of sinking another six years into it), and put every spare nickel into Apple stock.
Sharpshooter188@reddit
Saving to invest in bitcoin. Getting my adhd checked out, get into IT and jump into more advanced positions the moment I can. Off note here, isnt it weird how the most customer service heavy jobs are the ones that pay the least? Lol just something I thought of.
dolphin_fist@reddit
Suggest to my parents that I might have ADHD and try to get diagnosed much earlier.
FionaGoodeEnough@reddit
Hmmm…this is an interesting question if you actually like your life. Because there are things I would have liked to have done, like a year abroad, but would that mean I wouldn’t have my husband and daughter? Scary thought! I guess I would mostly invest some money in a few things, warn some people about a few things, and otherwise try to get back to my currently life.
LeftcelInflitrator@reddit
Go no contact with my mom then attend university overseas.
Mudassar40@reddit
Play the lottery.
HistoryGirl23@reddit
Move to a job in PA and not go to Grad School
ArmGlobal126@reddit
DiscordianStooge@reddit
Mining bitcoin.
MihalysRevenge@reddit
Stop wasting my time partying and street racing and get into the military earlier and push to OCS/College and really invest
Ok_Researcher_9796@reddit
I'd need to go back further Than that not to screw up my life.
Christymapper71@reddit
Warn the world about COVID-19!
auntiematt@reddit
I would avoid the DWI, hit & run, underage consumption, and driving without insurance charge I received at 7 am, 2 days before my 20th birthday.
itsmiddylou@reddit
Gearing up to tell my dad he’s absolute trash for cheating on my mom and leaving (1st out of 3 times) 4 days before my birthday.
kaps84@reddit
Giving both of my parents giant hugs since they passed in 2004 and 2006.
Telling my dad not to ignore the cough, it's not a respiratory infection.
Telling my mom to have them aspirate that cyst they told her wouldn't grow into a tumor.
the805chickenlady@reddit
I'd quit drinking at 22 instead of 43.
Thisisnow1984@reddit
Wow hits home too hard. Me too
Thisisnow1984@reddit
I'm going to start talking to the hot Russian immigrant chicks at school everyone was afraid of. Then I'm starting a yoga athletic wear company for women
andthrewaway1@reddit
Stonks
No-Purchase-5930@reddit
I'm not living through the last 23 years again. Cinder block chained to foot and over a bridge I go.
KeepYaWhipTinted@reddit
I'm putting all my savings ($837) into Turkey making it to the world cup semi finals. Then I'm a millionaire.
evilron@reddit
Can I get a mulligan if it doesn’t work out right? I could… stay in the Marines, save my first marriage, find my daughter I don’t know about yet, and of course… save more, eat better, stay in shape.
CoffeeBeanCharisma@reddit
I was in the middle of taking a year-long break from grad school because I was getting sick ALL the time (I am not exaggerating that I was sick literally every 3-6 weeks for more than a year at that point) so... I'd not RETURN to grad school and just resume working in tech, instead. I'd invest in all the standard things others are saying - Apple, Bitcoin (not Amazon, fuck Amazon), etc. I'd learn how to actually invest my Roth IRA and not trust my grandfather who said he would manage it for me (he left several thousands in a money market account instead of investing it, and it took me easily 15+ years to understand WTF was going wrong and fix it, after I'd already drained most of it to pay medical bills - it was started when I was in about 7th grade). I would proceed to build up my resume with in-demand skills and make plans to permanently move to another country with socialized healthcare, 4+ weeks of vacation as standard and a generally better work/life balance culture than the USA.
Satan_Loves_You_@reddit
Going to Las Vegas after the Red Sox go down 0-3 in the ALCS and betting the farm on them to win.
Kellbows@reddit
Not taking a break from college, and moving back home. But then again, those things made me the person I am today.
Thewrongbakedpotato@reddit
Do everything in my power to get "The Apprentice" taken off the air.
ladymouserat@reddit
Just starting highschool all over again, let’s do it! Ima rule the world instead
Wolfen1982@reddit
Ugh, nickelback
brandiLeeCO@reddit
This year is such a blur for me. I really had to think about what I was up to. I think it’s such a blur because I spent most of it drug induced. I was smoking a lot of pot at the time and dabbling in other things. I think I had quit college by this time and was pretty much living the loser life. I had gotten really close with a friend of mine who just passed away about two years ago. This year was like a waste of my time. Sad.
UtahItalian@reddit
I had a job that paid $15/hr in 2002. It was catering but I still got close to 40 hours. No benefits or anything but the pay at the time was sick for the work I did.
Hopefully I would save a lot more and party less. The saved money would invest in any company still alive now (FAANG comes to mind) and obviously Bitcoin.
I would teach skiing again. Fantastic
DJWGibson@reddit
Swear loudly that I missed averting 9/11 by just 8 months...
Da12khawk@reddit
Stock up on milk
KamuiT@reddit
This is a nightmare scenario.
1) I’d lose my daughter.
2) I would never be able to recreate the steps I took to meet my wife.
3) I’d have to rejoin the Army during the height of the Iraq War and go through that all over again.
4) I’d lose friends all over again to shit that I can’t remember when exactly it happened and feel extreme guilt for not being able to prevent it.
Yeah, I don’t ever want to travel back in time.
scissorlip@reddit
Make some tech investments, commit to staying in college, and go into relationships with better boundaries. I’d also still go out to the clubs with my friends every weekend, as those are some very happy memories :)
bikeonychus@reddit
I'm changing which university course I'm doing. Dropping computer games art for either fine art, or something horticultural.
It's not like I failed to make games - I worked on about 25 of them. The industry just massively burnt me out, and then dropped me after I had a kid. I would rather do something else where I'm not working for 15 hours a day and have 3 days to concept 1000 fucking icons for the goddamn app store, or getting death threats.
punkinbass@reddit
I remember Spider-Man,Salt Lake City Olympics cause I grew up in Utah. Nelly. But listened to Eminem Show, that was a banger. And I remember still having a Walkman that my dad gave me. And a Sony boombox.
mamaberry15@reddit
I'm going to get the ADHD diagnosis that I should have gotten when I was a kid (but, you know, I was a girl in the 80s), instead of a misdiagnosis of depression.
I can't even imagine how much more effective I would have been these last 23 years if I didn't have to wait for perimenopause and motherhood to break me first to get a diagnosis and medication.
gems1220@reddit
Investing, saving, celebrating 18 year old me in all her glory and confidently walk the halls of my high school ask my crush to prom
superjosh420@reddit
Bitcoin. I actually did buy in early but i would have bought in a looooooot more if I knew
Specific-Pollution68@reddit
Well obviously invest in everything that is popular now (social media platforms, tech). But more importantly cherish the time I have with my parents a lot more, knowing fact that they both would end up passing away relatively young and only a few years a part.
Exciting_Agent3901@reddit
Putting money on the Giants in the 2008 Super Bowl.
zuklei@reddit
I’m getting a fucking divorce 💯
giraffemoo@reddit
Leaving home sooner (I left in January 04).
wyc1inc@reddit
I need to find my way to Las Vegas, then I'm gambling to get immediate money to pay for expenses. I'm a fairly ok poker player now, but I'd definitely be ++EV in those years prior to Chris Moneymaker. I'm also gambling on sports, particularly prop bets on specific events that I remember for big payouts. But I can also make money consistently on easy stuff, like betting on Floyd Mayweather to win every time, betting on NBA finals games I remember, etc.
But I'm not going to get carried away so I don't attract too much attention. The profits I do make, I'm investing in tech stocks, and then later bitcoin.
Lafnear@reddit
Break up with my boyfriend instead of marrying him.
LegitimateBlonde@reddit
Hugging each of my Dads.
Uhh_JustADude@reddit
Quit my current university, despite its prestige, at the end of the semester and go find something else to do besides pretend I can keep up with the academics. Join the university I should have picked as a freshman instead, one another one more suitable to my eventual career. Probably take a year off if I can and gain some sorely needed real-world experience.
Benefit from 23 years of hindsight (and stock market knowledge), and find ways to make up for a loss of income doing what I want instead, or doing what I did, compounding my wealth, and retiring early.
djayed@reddit
Some more of this K that I got from the vet pharmacy in Tijuana, that shit was clearly good.
LifePedalEnjoyer@reddit
Divorcing my wife.
ThaVolt@reddit
Go to school, I guess.
CaligoAccedito@reddit
Look, I only read the title and looked at the pic.
I almost started crying; I'm choking them back even now.
Even if I went back and was still my current age; even if I went back and had no resources; even if I went back and had to avoid anyone I ever knew to prevent the paradoxical explosion of the universe--I would take even the cartoonishly-evil version of Satan I was sold in Baptist Sunday school up on this offer.
My heart hurts so much every single day in this current era, I'd give up everything I have right now to go back to when, maybe, things could change course.
CaligoAccedito@reddit
Even better if you can get me back to, like, 1998!
Shanntuckymuffin@reddit
Changing my major to marketing and working to convince a major company to hire me as their “social media manager”. A
Ibuildthecoolestshit@reddit
Buying all the bitcoin I can afford
theLegendofWalt@reddit
Hanging onto my bitcoin, dogecoin, and a handful of other projects I was actively trading.
InSonicBloom@reddit
I'm an electrical engineer, I would be filing a shitload of patents!
DashboredPro@reddit
I was 17 and had the world by the sensitive bits. Take me back!
DMHavoX@reddit
Start stashing cash away like a beast, and waiting for 2009 for bitcoin to launch... and steadily buying bitcoin for years.
Ok-Bookkeeper-3149@reddit
'Member the Rally Monkey? I 'member.
lucky_bpl@reddit
Beyond the obvious of fixing my investment portfolio.
end the relationship I just started before a decade of bullshit goes by.
force myself into a hard sciences major of some sort instead of Communication. (Cause yes, I know covid is coming in the future - but a medical job would have kept me from being laid off from 2008 until almost 2014 by working in "corporate communication" for a bank.)
fyrefly_faerie@reddit
I would change my college major, not waste my time on unavailable guys, and do more travel (taking lots of photos with my trusty digital camera). I would probably also try to be more physically active to not get fat.
The_BSharps@reddit
Probably sit around playing snake on my Nokia.
Tiny-Reading5982@reddit
I was about to graduate high school. I'd tell myself to get off depo sooner (crazy weight gain and mood swings) and stay on my add meds so I could focus on college like I did high school.
Schmuck1138@reddit
Changing my program from criminal justice to accounting, buying Apple, Facebook, and Amazon stocks, buying as much Bitcoin as I can, and investing in rental properties.
Repulsive_Tie_7941@reddit
High school senior, just turned 18. Get back on my ADHD meds at a stronger dose. Attempt to pivot away from my chosen college, ideally to the local CC. Work on weight loss, and if I succeed, go in the Air Force.
Obligatory Apple, Amazon, BitCoin.
Most importantly, not meet and marry the person I did.
Brazident@reddit
I guess I'm going to high school.
Dangerous_Spring5030@reddit
Saving all my money until the 2003 World Series, then betting it on the Marlins, while being laughed at, the turning around and laughing at everyone else all the way to the bank after those Marlins have defeated the Yankees.
Coyote_Roadrunna@reddit
Hang at less sketchy bars. Eat healthier. Make a more conscious effort to avoid troube in general. Don't let the small stuff bother me so much.
jenness977@reddit
I'd find a GOOD therapist so I could deal with my issues, instead of waiting for them to cause the major problems they did. And I'd change my major in college to something that I actually wanted to do, rather than what my parents wanted. But that goes back into the importance of dealing with my issues sooner, rather than later through the RIGHT kind of therapy
PetersonsBenzos@reddit
We're getting on lithium bb!
Mr_Cigarette@reddit
Heroin
Turbomattk@reddit
Making massive bets on the Super Bowl winners before the seasons start.
AUCE05@reddit
That 225k house was brick and real wood floors. We have went backwards on architecture
ElmerTheAmish@reddit
That's survivorship bias. McMansions were firmly taking hold in the track housing developments and were around long enough to have diluted the numbers of brick houses. You'd have to go back at least another 20 years to find those.
Nichtsein000@reddit
Bad news: it’s Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence and I’m doomed to do everything the same way forever.
bart_cart_dart_eart@reddit
Time traveling egg salesman
Additional_Demand237@reddit
I would probably go to summer school to get additional credits to graduate early. Back then, I would enlist may 30 2002 and still have my senior year to finish. I would also love spending time with my grandfather who passed in 2012 and one grandmother that would pass June of 02. I would definitely be much more focused on school and the gym instead of wasting my last summer as a high school kid. Additionally, I would let a very close friend know that in our time, he would be killed in Afghanistan in 2013. Maybe it would have changed the outcome.
WaywardSon_1993@reddit
Just a dream. I’ll therefore do nothing with the information (it isn’t knowledge).
Matt-J-McCormack@reddit
Cry because even if I somehow managed to re-meet my wife (which would be sort of creepy what with the future knowledge) any kids I had wouldn’t be my son.
poopypants206@reddit
Buying loads of apple stock
NoneOfThisMatters_XO@reddit
Investing in netflix and apple. Also changing my college major while I still can.
Disastrous-Panda5530@reddit
Well I’d be in high school in my senior year. 2 months from graduation. I’d be saving all my puny paychecks from McDonald’s to invest. I’d save up to buy bitcoin once it’s introduced. I Wouldn’t take out a bunch of student loans for college either. I’d just work and save more to pay my tuition. Or only take exactly what I needed. I was always offered more and like an idiot I accepting it. Believing once I finished college I could easily get a job started at $60-80k lol 😂
sorrymizzjackson@reddit
Yeah, I would’ve sent every penny extra back and embraced my poverty harder. I only took about 8k extra and I did mostly need it, but once you get out with no career incoming worth a shit and can’t pay them, that 8k made a huge difference once the interest came to call.
lorenzo463@reddit
It took some digging, but I confirmed that I had my first ever sexual encounter on April 27, 2002. So my 21 year old self’s immediate priority would be not fucking that up. Which would probably lead that version of me to fuck it up.
Dismal-Kangaroo6327@reddit
4/25/02 I was on my honeymoon! (4/20 wedding!)
outdatedelementz@reddit
Nah man if I’m going back in time it’s got to be pre-911. Like transport me back to the year 2000.
YodiDodi@reddit
This would be hell.
If it was all a dream then none of the future we saw was true, and so there wouldn't be any stock tips, gambling picks, etc. to get rich. Hopefully you wouldn't remember much of the dream as having what would be a lifetime worth of fake memories of the next 20+ years when you are in your early 20s would be awful, and you would have trouble figuring out what was real and what happened in your dream life. Would also be sad as hell waking up to find all the nice things in your future life didn't happen.
The dream future actually being true is the worst fate of all. There is a reason bibical prophets were not happy people-they saw a futute that rarely could be prevented and few believe their warnings. Yes you could get rich from stock and gambling tips, but you wouldn't be able to stop all the terrorist attacks, wars, and other horrible events you know will happen. That will destroy you. Even if you made yourself mega wealthy and devoted your life to stopping those events, you would not stop them all, and likely cause some butterfly effects harming other people which would destroy you. And plenty of the good things that happened to you as a person, friends, children, romances, etc-may not happen at all since you wouldn't be the same person at all knowing what you knew. And you couldn't even get therapy to deal with it as no therapist will believe you.
phantom_bennis@reddit
elcheapodeluxe@reddit
I wouldn't have any real knowledge only knowledge of my crazy ass dream.
PersianCatLover419@reddit
Pribably spending the day with my parents and grandparents, and telling a guy I knew not to get his girlfriend pregnant, use condoms, stay in college and get some type of degree, stop or do not get into drugs or just experiment with pot only, see a therapist and keep taking the many meds you are prescribed. I don't know if it would do any good but I would try. Rest in peace T.E.
0peRightBehindYa@reddit
It would be a wonderful Saturday morning in Ft Bliss, TX. I'm sure there would be some bullshit going on, but I was a squad leader so I could delegate at that point. Another two months of AIT to go.
PhoneJazz@reddit
23 years ago, many of us were in college.
23 years from now is our prescribed “getting ready for retirement” age.
We’re only halfway through our working years 😩
(Obligatory “we’re not retiring”)
toomuchtv987@reddit
HEY! No one asked you all that! 😉
(All in fun.)
onions-make-me-cry@reddit
Breaking up with my college boyfriend / first husband.
Cutting off my entire family of origin.
justredditinit@reddit
You had me at Nickleback.
toomuchtv987@reddit
4/25/2002 was a Thursday, so I was going to my brand-new full time job at the bank while also calling my girlfriends on my LG flip phone to plan the upcoming weekend…where are we going, what are we wearing? CALLED, because some of my friends didn’t have texting included on their phone plans.
Ekindas@reddit
One of my friends in college had a plan where it cost him 15 cents every time he sent or received a text. His high school friends would repeatedly send him the text “another fifteen cents” and I still laugh about it to this day.
toomuchtv987@reddit
🤣🤣🤣
I was the first of my friends to have it included, and guess how my BFF found out they cost 15 cents per. 🤣
Grand_Introduction36@reddit
Sports betting!!!
yespls@reddit
ugh, this is the year my Dad died so I'm declining to time travel to this year. maybe the year before.
StaticNegative@reddit
Yeah but your minimum wage was $5.25 LUL
Efficient-Log-4425@reddit
I'd tell my brother to say he was gay to his commander so he didn't get sent to Iraq and get shot.
rabidninjawombat@reddit
Damn..... Good thing to know I'm making only slightly more than the average salary of 2002......in 2025. 🥲
Efficient-Log-4425@reddit
On an adjacent Xennial thought....
April 26th, 1992
Michbullin@reddit
Well, considering I'm 2 years late to see my granddad again, probably sleeping in. Then, make a plan to invest to get rich and do good things for the world.
moeru_gumi@reddit
Buy bitcoin, move to Japan
2gecko1983@reddit
Senior in high school. I would:
1) Go for the graphic design degree I should have gone for, and
2) Actually talk to the One Who Got Away instead of letting him get away.
JellicoAlpha_3_1@reddit
I'd probably be studying for exams and getting ready to go to work
Human-Put-6613@reddit
I was studying abroad in Italy. I would’ve taken way more risks, made sure to become proficient in Italian, and probably just stayed there because I’d do anything to not be in the US right now.
Oh, and made sure my parents invested in Google.
caramelpupcorn@reddit
I would have worked on my self-esteem and general socializing challenges and be waaay nicer to people. I had a serious chip on my shoulder back then.
I also would've distanced myself from my toxic sibling and become independent from my family a lot sooner had I known what I do now.
aamabkra@reddit (OP)
Same. Can’t hate on ourselves too much. We weee just kids trying to figure it out like everyone else!
caramelpupcorn@reddit
Very true, thanks for the reminder 🙂 "We did the best with what we knew at the time."
aamabkra@reddit (OP)
I think one of the best things about improving on ourselves is recognizing the past mistakes we did or when we acted in a behavior that makes us cringe now— if you do that you’ve had some serious growth in life.
I think about all the dumb shit I would say it do. Now all I can do is shake my head in embarrassment!
caramelpupcorn@reddit
Haha, I've said this in this very subreddit before: Those cringey feelings from memories are what mid-life crisis' are made of!
Jourgensen@reddit
Transitioning.
bean3194@reddit
I would be exactly one month from graduating high school. Oooo that could be good -
If I could do the first two things, it would save me most of the pain that is still affecting me to this day. Oh well, shoulda, woulda, coulda.
QueerTree@reddit
It’s cliche to say I’d buy bitcoin… no you know what, i was right and it IS stupid!
Knight_thrasher@reddit
My 26th is coming up. Knowing what I know now, beg borrow steal and invest as much as I can in Apple. But I would really cherish the people I’m around
naamingebruik@reddit
I'd say, not go on the vacation trip in August of that year that ended up with a car accident and the death of my best friend and another friend and hospitalized me for almost a year. But.... Had that not happened I'd never have met a certain dude in the hospital and visited the city he lived in and decide to move there because it seemed a fun place.. and Had I not done that, I'd never have met my wife and wouldn't have my daughter, and my foster boy would be institutionalized since birth. So plenty good things came from that tragedy that wouldn't have happened had it not happened. So I don't know
I'd definitely warn my mother about her punctured heart chamber due to a mistake when the hospital gave her a temporary pacemaker. So she wouldn't pass away in 2019
Probably I'd prepare for the 2008 financial crisis by investing in the hedgefunds that saw it coming, and I'd buy a shitload of bitcoin when they were "worthless" and then my family and I would be living like kings now.
Millard_Fillmore00@reddit
Halle Berry in Monster Ball was the best thing that happened in 2002
notashot@reddit
This is all I want. Prepare for Bitcoin!
reillan@reddit
leaving my ex much sooner
MikeofLA@reddit
If it was a dream... then everything that has happened so far was just a figment of my imagination, so I wouldn't be able to act on it. That said, I would not have spent so much money on cars, drugs, and stupid shit I didn't need. Instead, would have invested and would be much better off now. Also, would have bought more than one house in 2008
Buzz_Buzz1978@reddit
Enjoy the last eight months of my grandfather’s life, then pack all my shit and move to somewhere that’s not running face first into fascism.
bgva@reddit
I'm in college preparing for midterms. I prolly take my school work a little more seriously, and I learn to live for the moment. For whatever reason, I was so focused on the future and trying to settle down instead of just enjoying myself.
I'm also scraping up some money to buy Apple stock and inventing Facebook.
pilates_mama@reddit
Hang out with my grandma. Put effort into post secondary and graduate. Travel before i get married. Maybe not marry my now ex but, kids so. Keep my flip phone and never get an iPhone.
mmoonbelly@reddit
Explaining to customers that we can’t refund their 3 year old Peugeot 206 just because their brakes squeak.
free-toe-pie@reddit
I would love this so much. Because then I would visit my grandparents and great grandparents. I would also not sweat all the things I did back then. Knowing things would turn out ok. I would avoid a certain male like the plague that next year. And I would invest in a bunch of different stocks.
Impressive_Owl3903@reddit
I was in high school, so going to school. But also investing as much as I could in Apple.
PeanutButterViking@reddit
Playing Halo and super pumped for Return Of The King.
InfidelZombie@reddit
I can't believe how checked-out from pop culture I was by 2002! I've only heard of the first 2 TV shows and two of the songs/artists. Haven't read/seen any Harrys Potter and just finally watched Lords of the Ring a few months ago (boooooring).
Chulasaurus@reddit
This was my fourth day of boot camp. No.
Hanksta2@reddit
Probably baitin'.
SweetCosmicPope@reddit
Taking college seriously. I have very few regrets in my life. But not taking school seriously the first time I went is a big one for me.
DHN_95@reddit
I'd be investing in all the companies that blew up during that time!
Prestigious_Joke3609@reddit
I don't know what I would do, but I know what I wouldn't do: listen to that damned Nickelback song.
Mr_DV@reddit
getting my motorcycle license at 20, not 40.
Bluevanonthestreet@reddit
This would be the exact time I wish I could go back to. I would be able to stop my husband and I from making absolutely terrible career choices.
adelwolf@reddit
Leaving my abusive, grooming, manipulative ex far sooner than I managed, and taking the kid with me.
theRestisConfettii@reddit
If it was all a dream, then I wouldn’t really have any useful knowledge, would I..?
I guess knowing Hamilton (2015) by heart, I would write it and star it in for a year before sitting back and collecting my money on residuals.
aamabkra@reddit (OP)
Yep. I guess so, buddy but it doesn’t really matter much does it since it’s all a hypothetical.
post_obamacore@reddit
I'm going to expose Tim Donaghy and all the other corrupt NBA refs and get the Sacramento Kings the championship they deserve.
RetailBookworm@reddit
I was in high school and I refuse to go back.
oakleafwellness@reddit
I was probably half drunk and at work. No matter what I told myself, I wouldn’t remember.
Rpd840@reddit
Tell myself not to join the Marines. Invest in Apple, Google, Nvidia instead
Individual-Island778@reddit
This is the year I met my husband. I wouldn't change a thing, just in case
GreedyRaisin3357@reddit
Going straight to one of those sports betting sites
LilMushboom@reddit
getting ready for graduation and preparing to start college. I think I would pick a different major for sure.
Alijony@reddit
Taking as many shitty loans out as possible to invest in Bitcoin then straight to Phoenix to buy all kinds of properties. Probably buy a handful of old Porsche 911s as well since they are super cheap as well.
Brilliant-Jaguar-784@reddit
I was a full time college student, who had a full time job, 70 miles from campus. Fun times!
Overall_Falcon_8526@reddit
Buy Nvidia, Apple, and Bitcoin.
Garroch@reddit
Don't forget to cash it all out in 2015 and put it all on Leicester City to win the Premier League (5000/1).
Overall_Falcon_8526@reddit
The problem with that strategy is if they can't cover the payout. If I dump a million into that bet, they would have to pay out 5bn, which is doubtful.
larryb78@reddit
Payment plan with interest - fuck ‘em
ZombieCantStop@reddit
Yep. Better off investing in Amazon Apple and Netflix. Then buying a shit ton of bitcoin in 2009 when it’s launched. Maybe sell off the bitcoin in 2016 when it peaks at 18-19k then buy back when it drops to 3k
Or memorize some lottery numbers.
All the above. Then you can spend your time (when you get bored of living it up) making your corner of the world a better place for as many people as possible.
oldmilt21@reddit
Was it a dream or was it real? Cause if it was a dream, then everything would’ve just been made up in my head anyway, so I’d probably just go about my day as if nothing had happened.
Perhaps a time travel framing would make more sense here.
Caranthi@reddit
Bitcoin
ZombieCantStop@reddit
Going to have to wait another 7 or so years. You should be buying Amazon and Apple stock in the mean time.
larryb78@reddit
Also Nvidia
NachoNachoDan@reddit
Unless you mean inventing bitcoin you are a little ahead of the curve in 2002.
Bors713@reddit
Someone remind me, who won gold in ice hockey at those Olympics?
NachoNachoDan@reddit
This is what passive aggressive looks like in Canadian
throwawayfromPA1701@reddit
Leaving the US, and investing in something called bitcoin when it comes about.
ailish@reddit
No please. I don't want to go back to that.
Express-Cow190@reddit
I didn’t meet my wife until 35.
First I’d make bank on the market and then I would find her as quick as humanly possible. Not that money is terribly important to either of us but I’d make sure we were set up for all the time I missed without her.
slademccoy47@reddit
Get a business degree when I go to college and then start a video game company. The minute Apple releases their SDK for ios, start making mobile games and get rich over night. Then use my newfound wealth to buy a couple houses after the market crashes. Then mine bitcoin and sit on it until the 2020s.
singleguy79@reddit
Hmm, I would still be in college. Change my major to maybe something computer related.
Be more social.
Try not to alter events to much so that my nieces and nephews aren't born.
Von_Bernkastel@reddit
It was all a dream, meaning it was all in your head and it speaks volumes about your mental health, and in this last whisper you hear before you wake up, "Get mental help, you got some serious mental problems if your dreaming all of this up.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
Love it!