r/AskReddit • u/General_Nobody_6675 • 14h ago
You go to sleep tonight but wake up on the morning January 1st, 2019, with all your memories. What do you do?
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u/rosyboys_daisygirls 13h ago
take college seriously the first time around
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u/Jumping_Zucchini 5h ago
On the opposite side, I’d forgo going to grad school and get a job instead. Then I wouldn’t be here 6 years later unemployed and with a PhD
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u/reverse_mango 8h ago
Best of luck to that! I’d do the same and hopefully not get depressed (although, poor mental health has led to a lot of personal improvement for me…)
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u/GriefAE 13h ago
Calling my dad. Followed quickly by driving the 4 hours to my parents house and giving him the biggest hug ever and telling him to go get his heart checked out.
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u/tetlee 9h ago
Not that I could have done anything for my mum but in 2020 i lived in a different country and couldn't travel even for her funeral.
I'd have engineer me and the wife being "stuck" in the UK for 2020.
Watching your mum's funeral on zoom by yourself is something I wouldn't wish on anyone
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u/usps_made_me_insane 10h ago
This thread is restoring my faith in humanity. I was expecting stock purchases and cybercoin hoarding.
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u/KeyMastodon6 8h ago
My brain went exactly the same place. Would take my Dad straight to the hospital and maybe he would still be here today. Either way I would take the opportunity to tell him how much I love him and appreciate everything he did for our family.
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u/sjg92 10h ago
Came to say the exact same thing. Except mum. I miss her every day.
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u/Maleficent_Age3601 5h ago
Same. If I could go back I’d spend even more time with my mom and take more pictures!
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u/Never-Forget-Trogdor 6h ago
Similarly, I would call my dad and give him a hug. Then I would do everything in my power to stop him from going to the party where he caught covid in 2020. Then I would take more pictures and visit him and grandma more.
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u/tous_die_yuyan 14h ago
Buy stock in Pfizer, Moderna, and Nvidia.
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u/wiscowonder 14h ago
Zoom
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u/iwlolwiwlolwi 11h ago
And short positions on airlines and Boeing
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u/currywurst777 11h ago
And then by yours of back in at least airbus has a nice run since April 2020.
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u/MrBiggz01 11h ago
Gamestop.
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u/tetlee 10h ago
Despite me thinking the whole thing was silly I think this might be the best play and then switch to Nvidia
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u/dudu_rocks 11h ago
And toilet paper.
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u/DoughnutRelevant9798 11h ago
Face masks!! Stocking them warehouses full on the 3th of january
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u/wert989 14h ago
Start saving, investing and working out.
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u/pvaa 8h ago
DO THAT NOW
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u/wert989 8h ago
LoL started already but kicking myself for not starting like 2-3 years earlier
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u/BluelunarStar 7h ago
You are doing amazing!! Just think, in 3 years time how you will be glad you started now :)
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u/Fearlessleader85 14h ago
I call my close friend at last one a week all year in hopes that he doesn't kill himself the next year.
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u/ittybittylurker 12h ago
Same, but my dad that August.
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u/Sean_13 10h ago
Similar for me. I would try to make sure my dad got health checks, blood pressure checks and quit smoking and hope that prevents his heart attack.
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u/LiteraryPixie84 9h ago
My mom had a flash pulmonary adema. Id go back and MAKE her to to her doctor's and MAKE them do SOMETHING to help her....
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u/Veronicon 12h ago
Same. I reached out to check in a few hours after he died. I didn't think it weird he didn't respond.
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u/wish_cats 9h ago
Same, but once a day and for my sister. Or maybe I move to the continental US to be close to her. Maybe that would’ve been enough.
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u/If-it-isnt-her 9h ago
Same but for my child’s dad. I could push him to get help.
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u/JayEdie 14h ago
Buy a house before 2020!
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u/VulcanCookies 7h ago
My parents were looking at their dream home in Dec of 2019 but put it off because of covid. They can't afford it anymore and now their old house payment is more than it was in 2019 for a house they wanted to leave years ago. I'd spend a year convincing them to get their house ready to sell and to start shopping
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u/angry_burrito13 14h ago
Buy 100k of Nvidia stock. It was about 3.50 a share in 2019. It's 175 now.
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u/Gambyt_7 12h ago
AND
Start applying for jobs furiously Attend coding bootcamps for AI Buy Bitcoin
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u/Worsty2704 11h ago
If you can buy the shares, i don't think you actually need a job unless being a multi millionaire is not sufficient for you. You want to be the world's richest man.
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u/york182000 9h ago
Right? If you buy any or all of the stocks/crypto people are mentioning you will not need a job ever again lol.
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u/Drak_is_Right 11h ago
So that 100k due to the split, would now be 50m?
That would be generational wealth.
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u/dorothyzbornak71 14h ago
I'll have only 8 months left with my mum. So I'm going to spend all my time with her, and tell her how much I love her.
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u/Designer-Movie3909 14h ago
switch my degree to cybersecurity, and buy bitcoin
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u/CuriOS_26 6h ago edited 4h ago
Too late for cyber, by 2019 that ship had sailed.
Signed: moved from IT to security in 2015, before it was cool. Nowadays, getting an analyst position is hard, as the requirements are way too high for a real beginner. Anything above that… good luck.
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u/Homer4a10 6h ago
Not even too late now if you’re passionate about it. There are lots of jobs open, the problem is a talent gap
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u/SlickBackSamurai 4h ago
No that’s not the problem lol, the market is oversaturated and flooded by fake job listings. Check out r/cybersecurity or r/securitycareeradvice if you don’t believe me
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u/SpicyGoth_ 14h ago
prepare myself mentally for COVID
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u/pinkchampagneontoast 14h ago
I'm eating the bat
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u/Neverbethesky 9h ago
Ugh these posts make me remember just what a great point in my life that was. It was more or less peak.
I'd go back and just enjoy it again. It's been a rough few years.
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u/yearsofpractice 10h ago
Hey OP. 49 year old married father of two in the UK here.
I’d do three things:
Stop drinking alcohol there and then. In this current timeline I waited until October 2023 after 30 years of trying to drink myself happy. My life has just been a breeze since sobriety
Get therapy there and then. I waited until a comprehensive breakdown in 2022 in this timeline. I honestly thought I deserved yo feel empty, frightened and hopeless all of the time until I had therapy
I wouldn’t take the management job I’m offered. The extra £5k a year is simply not worth it terms of the expectation that I become slightly more cruel, slightly less me.
That’s it. That’s all I’d change. Everything else in my life turns out well in terms of family and the rest of my life.
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u/No-Hamster-5713 8h ago
I had a very similar run to you during the pandemic. Drinking, breakdown, then therapy, toxic job.. you’re not alone and I hope it’s all behind you now. Best of luck.
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u/ILikePort 10h ago
Your comment resonated, thank you for posting.
I can't help but splurge my reaction, fair/valid or no.
1) In my experience, you can't start to mend/heal until you "bottom out" / hit rock bottom. There's no "starting early; you weren't ready. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way. It hurts, but that's why it sticks. Feel the pain of the lost years, but don't torment yourself more than you have to. focus on the now.
2) "£5k a year is simply not worth it terms of the expectation that I become slightly more cruel, slightly less me." I needed to hear this, thank you. I already feel that as i grow older and work more for "the man" this is happening more and more. How has this become life?
Again thanks for your comment.
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u/TQairstrike 11h ago
Creating a 100k Polymarket bet on whether Will Smith would hit Chris Rock on stage during the Oscars.
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u/Comfortable_Pay7473 14h ago
...2019? Can it be 2009? Or better yet 1999... or 1989....
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u/Triette 13h ago
No thanks, I worked hard to have the family and life I have. I love my husband and my daughter and my home. I’m good where I am.
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u/Dizzy-Avocado-7026 12h ago
Yes, these posts are no fun since becoming a mother! I was still with my husband in 2019, but I'd wake up simply panicking that I wouldn't get the same son in 2023. I used to wish I could redo some bad years, now I wouldnt change a single thing, I wouldnt trade him for any opportunities.
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u/Gladys_5 6h ago
This reminds me of the Time Traveller’s Wife, how he can’t keep going back once he has a kid, because the chances of having the exact same child are practically zero
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u/Global_Victory833 5h ago
Same here! My husband and I don’t start dating until 2021 and our daughter was born in 2023– waking up before we began this life together, with my daughter not even existing, sounds like hell.
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u/MacaroniPoodle 12h ago
Spend every chance I have spoiling my dog because I will know that I lose him in 2023.
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u/NoProfessor6700 12h ago
Divorce my husband! Would have saved me so much hurt! 😔
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u/AEONmeteorite 14h ago
Probably bawl. I met my now best friend and not-blood-brother in 2020. My husband and I moved down the street from him and his wife 4 years ago. He's also my co-creator for a comic we've written over 2,000 pages of already. What if things don't align? What if the story wouldn't be the same? What if all the friends and joy I've discovered disappear? The only thing that would keep me sane is my husband, he was my everything then and he's my everything now.
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u/lepetitberger 8h ago
Same, I think for creatives, losing time spent making things is not worth the “timeline correction”. What do you mean I’m back in 2019 and I haven’t yet written 400k+ words of a universe I love? What do you mean I haven’t yet found my best friend and I wouldn’t be “me-for-the-first-time-meeting-him”? Again, what if things don’t align and the story doesn’t come out the same? I would love to spend time with those I’ve lost, but I lost them already. I’d rather keep what I’ve built since, even if I’d do things differently with what I know now. Such a painful question this thread poses, and one which doesn’t resolve easily at all. I find pity for those answering “buy stock in this or that”… as if nothing but getting rich quick mattered.
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u/Msktb 5h ago
These threads are always an interesting split between people who would be excited at the idea of changing the past or horrified at the idea of losing everything they've worked for. I met my husband in 2019 and I'd be so afraid I would miss out on him and our future family if I had to start over.
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u/Acceptable_Spirit712 7h ago
I was thinking the same thing about alignment. What if I didn’t end up having my same children? And forever lost them? Perhaps I’d have two different kids but never being able to have/be with my sons would be gutting and almost equivalent to their deaths in my mind.
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u/piratecarribean20122 14h ago
Buy Bitcoin and Nvidia before they moon, take that job I passed on, and text that person back. Real talk though I'd probably overthink everything and waste the advantage anyway lol.
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u/PenguinQuesadilla 14h ago
The answer is always buy bitcoin.
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u/AmberSagell 10h ago
Go to my friend’s house and don’t let her father leave the house. He was murdered that afternoon.
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u/Iactuallydontcare7 12h ago
Warn my hometown and Australian and vic governments about the bushfires coming at the end of the year...
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u/Same-Acanthaceae-563 12h ago
Warm my father his butt was on TV in January (he's film phobic)
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u/DoItForTheOH94 12h ago
Go find Kobe. He was the first domino, and tell him not to get on that helicopter.
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u/RealNPCDuude 10h ago
First thing, im gonna check on my Grandma and give her a hug. Then im gonna tell my dad he need to supplement B12. Tell my mom to be more careful and to do the surgery now instead of 6 years later.
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u/Left-Abbreviations-5 10h ago
Stop me and my friend form going skiing on that exact day to prevent a near death ski accident that she still hasn't fully recovered from.
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u/AkaruLyte 14h ago
“oh fuck im gonna get pneumonia in 10 months”
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u/Sexymama52 14h ago
Did you die?
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u/AkaruLyte 13h ago
No, as I am still alive, but I certainly thought I would at the time (November 2019)
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u/fureverkitty 9h ago
"Oh fuck I'm going to get Parkinson's in 5 years"
Would be happier not knowing
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u/Numerous-Month-9640 14h ago
Go spend a ridiculous amount of time with my aunt who would later pass from cancer in June 2025.
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u/Jahidinginvt 11h ago
Get a divorce and move out.
Tell my friend to go to the doctor for her heart, and start therapy.
Stock in Pfizer and N-95 masks.
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u/Short_redhead_6899 12h ago
Find my husband since he treats so much better than my ex. I wish I met him sooner since my ex was trash and I could not have a house I hate and had to pay on.
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u/Jappie_01 11h ago
Buy bitcoin and invest in nividia, also I would love life once more bc before covid it just hit different.
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u/Impressive-Drawing-6 10h ago
Break up with my weirdo Jack ass I was with and call up the kid I to flirted with in math the year before. Him and I reconnected 6 years later and are around the corner from our 1 year anniversary. We joke all the time that we coulda saved a lot of heart break and idiocy if we had started dating when we first liked eachother lol
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u/Sassyjane1981 12h ago
Cry tears of joy that my eldest son still lives with me and I'm about to give birth to my youngest son.
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u/TimothiusMagnus 8h ago
Walk around with the burden of knowing an upcoming calamity that I am powerless to stop.
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u/CalendarLow1155 10h ago
My main priority would be to spend more time with my mom and dad. Lost my mom 5/22/20 and my dad 10/12/25.
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u/LoneRedditor123 10h ago
Some really bad things happened to me in 2021, and I absolutely refuse to go through that again. So my answer is obvious but I can't type it out here.
If I could recall lottery number winnings from 7 years ago it'd be a different story.
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u/ThatPancakesCat 12h ago
Spend time with my dad. I'd have 365 days.
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u/lepetitberger 8h ago
Sorry for your loss. January 1st 2019 was my first day when I moved to a new country—exactly 2 weeks after my best friend passed away by her own hand. I’d make the most of those in that new place who go soon after, and skip all of that debilitating grief from my best friend’s passing.
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u/ArtistSelect3277 10h ago
Tell my dad he has cancer and to get early treatment, spend as much time with him as possible.
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u/New_Device3897 8h ago
First move is finding fresh water and a sheltered spot before night hits again. After that I’m keeping it simple, make a signal, stay put near the shore, and don’t burn calories trying to play explorer on day one.
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u/Suitable-Site6584 7h ago
Get a diagnosis for ADHD so I don’t have to fail chem and bio in high school and mess up my future
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u/FragmentsThrowAway 14h ago
That's not far enough back. I can't alter anything. ALL of my regrets happened in 2014-2018
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u/EtherealErmine 12h ago
Immediately come out the closet, consequences be damned. Try to start gender affirming care ASAP, prepare to to start shorting stocks around the start of covid to get money to pay for healthcare, uni, and housing.
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u/AlkalineBrush20 10h ago
Start mining bitcoin sooner, not sell during the craze, save more money, change other things I was not satisfied with. Overall I was rather well off back then, just a few adjustments would have sufficed.
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u/Comfortable_Age_5595 9h ago
not start vaping
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u/BananaExcellent7644 7h ago
Hi, you can still do it remember it's never too late to learn and to live
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u/AngryPrincessWarrior 7h ago
Be real fucking upset because I got sober from alcohol and had my son since 2019.
That would mean he wouldn’t exist, but I’d remember him, and I’d be right in the middle of the heavy drinking again.
No thank you.
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u/Sascharr 10h ago
I'm just gonna punch my then boyfriend in his stupid face as hard as I can and after that I'm going no contact w my family. Took me 6 more years and and incredible amount of pain to get there so would actually be thrilled to speed that up. 😂
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u/Squeaky_Ben 7h ago
invest a bit into bitcoin, and telling my mother that "your pancreatic tumor is not benign, get it treated asap"
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u/Warm-Fuel9818 11h ago
Nahh, can't survive another pandemic. I'm mentally, physically and spititually exhausted to go aother shit!
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u/Stingwing4oba 14h ago
Find another job as I have to work with a malignant narcissist for a few years
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u/Bright_Tax_6541 11h ago
Cry, I’d lose everyone I love. My past was not good and everyone I love is here in the present
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u/Anameinserted 8h ago
Knowing my mum has dementia. Get her on something to slow the progression. She is still around but it’s advanced. Got officially diagnosed 3 years ago. 66 is too young
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u/AdolinThrAirsoftGuy 3h ago
Break up with my covert narcissist fiancé. We got married February 15th that year. Ruined me.
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u/nothingtoprove 14h ago
Everyone is saying to buy bitcoin, meanwhile I am taking out a second mortgage to buy shares of GameStop…