By Maria Rodriguez
Time travel: A mythical, scientific, fictional feature of modern, ancient, and classic stories/novels. For teenagers in movies and in real life, we often wish that it existed — ‘to have a re-do for arriving late at work, to take back something wrong we said, or simply just to re-live the “good old days.” We wish for it to exist due to embarrassment, remorse, or nostalgia. Sure it would be nice to experience the simplicity of childhood with a greater appreciation for its benefits and qualities. It would be relieving to right all our wrongs throughout our life.
I personally would prefer to go back to the summer of 2019, what now seems to be my golden year. But come to think of it, one of the things that prevented us from appreciating the time we long for is…well…there are various reasons for different people… But for me, it was simply because I didn’t know what was coming, yet I was constantly worrying about tomorrow. In early 2021, I would’ve done almost anything to be 13 again if given the chance. But after reading my journal entries and recalling some of the big and little mishaps that took place, I realized that 2021 is better overall. If time travel was real, I would have the choice to go back to 2019 or live in “now,” where I’m supposed to be. I would then be torn between 2 and even more periods of my life.
Oh, that’s probably one of the reasons why time travel (probably) doesn’t exist or isn’t accessible: Choices. Everyday we have so many choices to make; whether big or small, important or unimportant, urgent, or willing to wait ― we take a while. If we were given even more options (like time travel), we would be missing out on living life in the present moment. It’s always different the first time. So even if we don’t have time travel, we can still live in “NOW” with a newfound nostalgic appreciation for today’s firsts and replays.
