Lately, I’ve been having the urge to see who I am in 10 years. To go to this day on, let's say, 2026 and see what I am doing. Am I cooking dinner for my family, my children sitting at the counter doing their homework, my dogs following my every move as I prance around the kitchen finding the ingredients I need? Is my husband still at work anxiously waiting to come home from a long day in the office? Or am I still at work? Am I sitting in my office, barely ready to go home with sky-high stacks of papers neatly on my desk waiting for their numbers to be crunched?

I could be sitting at my makeup mirror, getting ready to go out with old high school friends that I have not seen in a while, or maybe I talk to them every day. I’m grocery shopping, I’m driving on the highway. I’m on the phone with my mom, I’m watching TV, I’m doing laundry.

I want to know where I live, in what city, in what country. Did I move across the globe or am I not far from my childhood home? I want to know with whom I live and if I am friends with my neighbors. I want to know what car I drive. Could I afford a G-Class Mercedes or did I have to settle with a Honda? How many dogs do I have? What TV shows do I watch? Am I still in love with Harry Styles?

I want to see what I look like. Am I taller, thinner? Is my hair long or short? How do I dress? What brands do I wear? How high are my highest pair of heels? How do I act? Am I still quirky and weird or have I finally broken away from my awkward stage?

I want to know how I feel. Am I happy? Has every decision I've made, leading up to that moment, been right? Did I pick the right major, the right school? Did I keep the right friends, did I date the right people? How many times have I failed, and how many have I succeeded?

It is scary. We are so vulnerable when it comes to life—left in the unknown until suddenly we know, and then suddenly we knew.

What I would give to play with my favorite baby doll, Samantha one more time. Or to eat dinner at 7 p.m, a plate of chicken fingers and french fries before me as my brother and I watch the Nickelodeon show "All That." To go back to day camp, and sleep away camp, and have a summer where I did not have a reading assignment or a job. To have nap time and recess and show and tell. To have my mom pick out my outfits and drive me to dance class. To sit on my dad’s shoulders and eat off the kids menu. To go back to my handwriting looking like I'm always using my left hand. To see stick figures as works of art. When life was so easy, all I had to do was live it.

If time machines were real and you could somehow, someway, go back in time, what would you relive? What memory makes you smile? Who do you want to see again? Where do you want to go?

What would you fix? What would you change? What would you do and what wouldn’t you do? And how would that change you right now?

Personally, there would be so many things I would go back and fix. Like a fight with one of my best friends. Disappointing my mom. Accidentally stepping on my dog. But even the smallest of changes, I believe, would change who I am today. And I like who I am today.

So, yes, it would be nice to travel to the future. It would be nice to watch myself, in this moment, in 2026, doing whatever I am doing with whomever I am with. And it’d be nice to go back to 2001, when I was only 5, with not a single care in the world. However, I think I'd pass on actually doing so. I think the desire I have to know what the future holds will only motivate me to achieve everything I hope I become. And I think the cravings I have to go back in time make me hold onto my favorite memories even tighter.

So if I was asked, "would you rather travel to the future or would you rather travel to the past?" I'd probably answer with "neither."

What about you?