This past weekend I watched the Time Travelers Wife (I have already read the book) and loved it. Although, sometimes it’s very hard to wrap my head around all the time travel. But watching that movie got me thinking a bit. If you could travel back in time to relive your life again would you? Would you want to go back knowing what you know now? Or would you want to go back and live it like you lived it before?

Yesterday I read a facebook comment from a friend wanting to go back to a certain point in college. Man would I love to do that! College was probably the best time of my life. But if I went back to my college days I would in no way shape or form want to know what I know now. I would want to go back and relive it like I did the first time. People say “If I knew then what I know now”, but at this point in my life I don’t think I’d ever travel back with today’s knowledge. I loved being ignorant back then. I like to call it carefree. Maybe I am only choosing to remember the good times, and I am sure there were bad times, but I wouldn’t change any part.

Another time in my life I would love to go back to is the carefree summers when I was about 10 or 12 (or basically any time during my elementary years). Man those were great. We had a pool in our back yard and our days were just spent playing outside with the neighborhood kids. No drama, no responsibilities. Everything was taken care of. Wouldn’t it be nice to live life carefree again?

I am not sure there will ever be a time that I would say “If I knew then what I know now”. When is that phrase appropriate? I can only think of two times that I would like to go back knowing what I know now. The first being my first year after college. I was a miserable human being and very unhappy. I wish I could go back and tell 22 year old Jen to enjoy life more, and that it all works out. The second instance would be the years that The Captain was in law school. The years leading up to our engagement. I wasn’t the happiest chica then either…but it all worked out in the end. It would be nice to know that.

So what about you? Is there a time in your life you’d like to visit or relive? When was it? Would you give yourself any advice? Would you spill the beans about the future?

Photos courtesy Ben Heine via Flickr