# You time travel to High School **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 5, 2017, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350 "2017-01-05T00:26:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/1 "2017-01-05T00:26:54Z")
Into your body…NOT literally. THAT would be a much more difficult situation than my premise. Unless you have some stash you can access and be fine with no valid ID and little way to get it. Anyhow…what’s your plan? You have forgotten almost everything going on at that point. Most of your classes you won’t even remember where they are not to mention what’s going on at that point. You almost certainly won’t even be able to get in your locker. So. Will you be able to convince your parents of what’s happened and get them to move to Vegas? Keep in mind that I don’t think butterfly effect will be too pronounced but I do believe its effects will be noticed by the time 2017 rolls around. ---
**Author:** ![Vicsage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e68b1a/32.png) [@Vicsage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vicsage)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/2 "2017-01-05T00:45:37Z")
I’d just pretend to have some kind of psychotic break to explain my memory problems. Then i’d bet on sport events. Buy comics that I know are going up huge in value. I still remember a time I had a chance to buy an Amazing Fantasy 15 AND a Spiderman 1 in NM for a total of $600 in the early 70’s. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/3 "2017-01-05T00:56:59Z")
Somewhat confusing OP. Are you asking my plan to get rich, or convince others, or actually asking what my objective is? If I wanted to convince close family + friends I’d time traveled, I don’t think it would be so hard. Even if there wasn’t some key event rolling around that I could predict for them, just being able to talk in detail about 20 years of events, technology and culture would be enough. Sent from my Mi-4c using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/4 "2017-01-05T00:58:46Z")
I get teleported back into high school, knowing what I know now? I set the goddamn place on fire and bar the doors. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/5 "2017-01-05T01:01:39Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > Somewhat confusing OP. Are you asking my plan to get rich, or convince others, or actually asking what my objective is? > > If I wanted to convince close family + friends I’d time traveled, I don’t think it would be so hard. Even if there wasn’t some key event rolling around that I could predict for them, just being able to talk in detail about 20 years of events, technology and culture would be enough. > > Sent from my Mi-4c using Tapatalk I guess I’m just asking what your immediate plan is. Right this very second you’d probably have a plate of food and some homework in front of you. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/6 "2017-01-05T01:05:09Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > I get teleported back into high school, knowing what I know now? > > I set the goddamn place on fire and bar the doors. I’d do this too, except I would know it happens a few years after I graduate anyway. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/7 "2017-01-05T01:06:23Z")
Well, if you send me today, I can in fact get into my locker. 10-1-19. However, if you send me back to HS and I can figure out a way to kill myself I will; I am NOT going back there. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/8 "2017-01-05T01:07:52Z")
> [@Vicsage](#): > > I’d just pretend to have some kind of psychotic break to explain my memory problems. Then i’d bet on sport events. Buy comics that I know are going up huge in value. I still remember a time I had a chance to buy an Amazing Fantasy 15 AND a Spiderman 1 in NM for a total of $600 in the early 70’s. You had access to that kind of money in high school? I sure didn’t. I am having trouble figuring out any way to immediately capitalize on my knowledge unless I could find someone wealthy and convince them that I knew what the hell I was talking about. Also, I doubt I’d be able to do much, if any of the homework in front of me. But I’d know a hell of a lot more about the law than I did back then. Maybe I could become some sort of law firm wiz kid. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/9 "2017-01-05T01:10:27Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > Into your body…NOT literally. THAT would be a much more difficult situation than my premise. Unless you have some stash you can access and be fine with no valid ID and little way to get it. Those are all English words, but strung together as they are, with all due respect, they make no sense at all. What body are we being sent into? What IS your premise, and what would be more difficult than it? What does the last sentence even mean? You’d have trouble buying alcohol? ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/10 "2017-01-05T01:15:22Z")
Hmm - what year of high school? I could catch-up / re-learn algebra / geometry easily. I haven’t used trig or calculus, however, in a couple of decades. English - I would crush it. History - no sweat. Spanish - oh shit. Another subject I haven’t used. Chemistry / Physics - tough catch-up. Have to cram the book over the weekend. Math - see above. American Football - no change (wahoo - back in my younger body, I might even work out more!). Girls - how skeevy will old brain in young body feel I wonder? ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/11 "2017-01-05T01:16:30Z")
I’d probably try to fake it. I wouldn’t remember most of my classmates’ names, but I’d hear their names soon enough. I wouldn’t know which class to go to but I could probably ask a friend and just make up a story about what a ditz I am or maybe I fell down, bumped my head and got confused or something. The worst that could happen is adults notice and I go to the doctor and the doctor concludes, “beats me, but he seems healthy now.” My grades would go up and I wouldn’t get into the usual trouble, so the adults wouldn’t worry. Mom would think it was weird that I suddenly took an interest in the stock market. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/12 "2017-01-05T01:54:37Z")
I rarely knew what was going on at any given point and had a method for getting into my locker without the combination so -------- basically I’m cool. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/13 "2017-01-05T01:54:58Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > I guess I’m just asking what your immediate plan is. Right this very second you’d probably have a plate of food and some homework in front of you. Why? If I find myself in my HS body in some random moment between the beginning of 9th grade and graduation, there’s \>1/3 chance that I’m asleep, because that’s what people (and especially HS-age kids) do with 1/3 or more of their time. Anyway, if I have any choice, I’m not going, despite the fact that my junior and senior years were amazing. Two reasons: 1. They were great, but I’ve done it already. It would be interesting to go back there for a visit, but I have about zero interest in re-living my entire adult life. 2. I believe that if such a time trip were possible, things would start diverging pretty quickly in unpredictable ways. I graduated from HS in 1972, and I want to live in a world where _Blood on the Tracks_, _Born to Run_, and _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_ all exist, and are as good as they are in this timeline. So nuts to going back in time before August 1975. Ain’t going. Forget it. Just not going to take a chance that _any_ of those would turn out to be less than they are in this reality. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/14 "2017-01-05T02:11:42Z")
Hitchhike to New York City and strangle a 33-year-old Donald Trump with my bare hands. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/15 "2017-01-05T02:11:50Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Those are all English words, but strung together as they are, with all due respect, they make no sense at all. > > What body are we being sent into? > What IS your premise, and what would be more difficult than it? > What does the last sentence even mean? You’d have trouble buying alcohol? Thanks, I had the same reaction. How does one get sent into one’s body “not literally”? I’m guessing that the OP means that your current mental self is transported into the body you had in high school, and you have also time-traveled back to the period when you were in high school. As to the butterfly effect, I think the OP is referring to how tiny changes in history that you make as a result of your inauthentic behavior as a high schooler might have an impact on the world of 2017. I was a high schooler in the 1970s. My short-term plan would be to survive as inconspicuously as possible, as my great fear would be that my memory problems/mental confusion would be attributed to the use of illegal drugs and I’d be severely punished for that. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/16 "2017-01-05T02:33:02Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Those are all English words, but strung together as they are, with all due respect, they make no sense at all. > > What body are we being sent into? > What IS your premise, and what would be more difficult than it? > What does the last sentence even mean? You’d have trouble buying alcohol? In time travel movies and stories there are usually two premises: 1. Your body moves back in time, so if you went back to your high school days there would be two of you. Older you has useless ID and almost no way of producing any ID. You have no place to live, the money you have _might_ pass if you have older bills. Credit cards are useless. Compared to: 2. Your soul/mind travels back in time and inhabits your past high school self. This is my premise. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/17 "2017-01-05T02:38:52Z")
edit: twice in one day I can’t read. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/18 "2017-01-05T02:45:45Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > Well, if you send me today, I can in fact get into my locker. 10-1-19. However, if you send me back to HS and I can figure out a way to kill myself I will; I am NOT going back there. 15-30-1. Fucking hell. I can’t remember the names of coworkers, but I remember that. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/19 "2017-01-05T02:59:43Z")
The locker thing is no big deal; I don’t think I used mine very much anyway, and if it does turn out I need something from inside it, I guess I could just tell the school secretary that I forgot the combination. I’d be more worried about all the _other_ things I’m supposed to know and don’t, like where I’m supposed to go for first period and who all of these people are. (Luckily, I was a socially awkward loner anyway, but that can only take you so far.) I was a pretty erratic math and science student, so a few low grades wouldn’t raise suspicion, and I _think_ I could remember or study up on most of what I would need to know for my other classes. Actually, the difficult one would be English, because I would need to practice thinking and writing like a reasonably bright high school student, rather than like someone with a PhD in English. The really hard part would be coping with being _treated_ like a teenager again. I don’t know if I could stand that. I’d be torn between trying to re-create my current life as closely as possible (it has been a pretty good life, and I’ve had some lucky breaks that wouldn’t necessarily be easy to replicate) and trying to change random stuff just to see what having a different life would be like. I honestly don’t know which I would choose. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350/20 "2017-01-05T03:23:54Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > 1. Your body moves back in time, so if you went back to your high school days there would be two of you. Older you has useless ID and almost no way of producing any ID. You have no place to live, the money you have _might_ pass if you have older bills. Credit cards are useless. Not a problem in the slightest. I’d simply use their hidden key to break into my parents’ house, grab my birth certificate and the cash my mother always had for emergencies and start over. Since I’m basically a nice guy, I’d even return the birth certificate and pay back the cash with interest after I got a job. > [@](#): > > Compared to: > > 1. Your soul/mind travels back in time and inhabits your past high school self. This is my premise. I’d go to my locker (combination 30-12-30- same lock for all four years of high school) get my class schedule and pick up from there. I’d probably get better grades, because I’ve developed better study habits. And, knowing how my classmates would turn out after high school, I’d cultivate a different set of friends. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-time-travel-to-high-school/776350.md?page=2)