If you woke up back in 2015, what would you do?

Before you answer, let me expand on this hypothetical a little more.

You went to sleep last night, slept the whole night, but upon waking up, and you’re back wherever you were today in 2015, in that body, in that time, and everything that has transpired since then has only been a dream.

I suppose the first question you’d have is, “Do I retain my knowledge of everything I’ve experienced?” The answer might not be great: yes and no. This was all just a dream, so to the extent that you currently remember your dreams is how you’ll recollect this all upon waking up. Think of Stein’s Gate; to make it make sense.

If you haven’t watched Steins Gate; you definitely should, but here’s a little help for those who haven’t. The series is all about time travel, and they explore the possibility of multiple world lines. Essentially, what transpired in one world line to that version of you isn’t necessarily your reality- even if you can “remember” it.

In the show, they deposit a theory: deja vu and dreams are merely our subconscious minds connecting and viewing the lives of our parallel selves - the “you” in another world line.

So, when you wake up in 2015, if you remember your life between then and now, it’s “real” in the sense that it has happened, but it’s a “dream” in the sense that in 2015, it hadn’t happened to you yet.

And with that, the hypothetical framework is set.

Now then, what would you do? Would you do things differently?

For those of us who generally remember our dreams vividly, this is more than enough to significantly damage one’s psyche.

And forget telling anyone! At best, you’d be branded a liar like the ‘John Titor’ military time traveller from 2036, or at worst, a borderline schizophrenic and locked up like the woman in Final Destination.

For me, in June 2015, I was writing mid-year matric exams. For the most part, I think the next 6 months wouldn’t be too different to how it was back then. I’d party a little less, and I’d definitely have to study twice as hard, given that I currently don’t remember half of what I did in school.

I wouldn’t want to change the trajectory of my life too much, so for the most part, given that I’ve “lived” through a lot of character development, I’ve got all of those experience points.

I’d skip business school in 2016 and go straight to study for my BA and follow it with honours straight away. So, instead of 1 year of BCom and a BA, I’d have a BA with Hons.

Accounting for the butterfly effect, I can’t guarantee that I’d end up exactly where I am today, at least not under the same circumstances. So, for the most part, I’d have to manually locate and build the relationships with people in my life today, and I’d pursue professional growth in the same businesses I’ve worked in up to now.

I’d, for sure, start investing sooner and spend a lot, maybe even all my savings in 2015 on cryptocurrency. And I’d definitely buy some of those Ape NFTs as soon as they come out.

And I’d listen to Obama when he predicted a pandemic in 5 years' time.