Time Travel

I was speaking to a coworker the other day about how the concept of time travel stresses me out. (It's funny what you end up talking about to the people you see every day.) I end up overthinking it and panicking over the influence of being my present-self in the past-world. What repercussions will this create? Will someone who was going to change the world for good not be born? I honestly hate even being the person someone is counting on for a ride somewhere. Not because I am lazy and do not want to give you a ride - I will drive you everywhere because I know how it is to not have. I just don't like the stress of importance it puts on me. What if I'm...

LATE?

Normal people would be fine with this, I am sure. "There was traffic", "I took the other way because I thought it would be quicker", "I forgot"... I am certain there would be allowances they would give to themselves. I have a hard time giving myself such allowances. And so, yes, even this is very stressful to me.

Other than horrible changes occurring (and more specifically, having them be all my fault), I wouldn't want to time travel anyway. What if you get stuck in the past? Then what? You just can't see your family anymore? Not to mention, you were expecting to be back, so maybe they don't even know where you've gone? Suppose you've gone into a past where the hygiene was not so sparkling. That would be enough to make me want to pull out my hair. And your body probably wouldn't have the wherewithal to deal with the illnesses/environment because you weren't born in that time, and as such would surely parish in no time flat. 

I also just don't really understand what the appeal would be in the first place, I guess. Why go back in time? What is it you need to see? Perhaps that's how people feel when I bring up travel. "What, you don't have the internet? You can't google Spain?" So while I do not understand it, I am certainly not picking on anyone who feels the drive to time travel. Different strokes. Godspeed. 

I suppose we have H. G. Wells to thank for popularizing/modernizing the concept. If it weren't for him, certainly it would only be a small gathering of philosophers, in a dimly lit room somewhere, building on this idea. Although, I will say, it would've likely saved me from the interaction I had at said job with a certain customer. This customer, let's call him "Ted", as I do not actually know his name. 

(the following is a bit of story time and has absolutely no point, but it's on my mind, and I feel like typing more things.)

I was at the register, handed someone their receipt and thanked them as they vanished into the Saturday afternoon. Their vanishing revealed Ted. A youngish man with an agenda. He spoke in a way that made me uneasy and his smile made me sick. I am to believe he wasn't all there, so please try to refrain from getting too offended (I told myself). Ted asked me if I had a certain book on a certain Disney Channel star who had grown up. I looked it up; no luck, old bean, my apologies. He said that it was too bad because he had plans that concerned this actor. "Plans that involve, say, time travel?" He finished. He wasn't laughing. He wasn't joking. He stuck the landing. I said oh, that is too bad, then. "Can I help you with anything else?" He proceeded to ask me if I was interested in joining him in his time-travelling escapade to "Oh, say, go back in time to when you were younger and babysit yourself?"

I am sure this was harmless. But it was also the single most creepy thing anyone had ever proposed to me. I actually shivered and felt the heat of my defensive/protective/woman-in-front-of-a-strange-scary-man anger rise from my gut. I interrupted him and loudly said:

"ALRIGHT, WELL I'M NOT INTERESTED IN TIME TRAVELLING WITH YOU, BUT THANK YOU FOR THE OFFER, HAVE A GREAT DAY. HI, I CAN HELP WHO'S NEXT."

I felt like Will Ferrell when he's being that character on SNL who cannot maintain the volume of his voice (a concept originating in the mind of Mike Myers, but let's not spill too much tea, here).

At any rate. Real or unreal, I have no intentions of choosing to time travel. Also not interested in being abducted and twirling about in space for the rest of my life. The people who are interested in these things make me curious - they really don't need family as much as I do. They can't! Why else would they intentionally speed off to another plane of existence, never to see their loved ones again?