The Toronto Blue Jays are
in the playoffs, Trudeau
just got elected as Prime Minister of Canada…What year is it, anyway?
Well, it’s still 2015, but today marks an important day in history. Today is the day that Doc and Marty McFly went into the future! Great Scott! How time flies!
In the movie
Back to the Future, the protagonists Doc and Marty head off into the past, future, and past again to make changes so bad things won’t happen in the future (or past, or present, or…whenever). Time travel can be hard to stay on top of some times. After all, it’s all a bunch of
wibbly wobbly, timey wimey…stuff.
Unfortunately, we still haven’t mastered the art of manipulating time like they did. But let’s say we could time travel. Marty was sent all over the place to help prevent bad things from happening. Well, now it’s your turn. If you could go back in time and let yourself in on a little secret about being prepared…what would you tell yourself?
If you knew your past self was going to be hit hard by a natural disaster, or injury or job loss, what would you say?
Think about that for a moment.
How prepared were you for Hurricane Sandy, or that last tornado that ripped through town? When that
massive snow storm hit last winter, were you sufficiently prepared with food, water, heat, and other gear to get you through those days when you couldn’t leave your house?
I think, if we had the ability to time travel, we would let ourselves in on some useful secrets. For me, it might be to stock up on some extra water during my time in the Philippines. That would have made the
tropical storm and subsequent damage much more manageable.
Or, during the fall of 2012, I would warn myself about the flood risk my apartment was in. Perhaps I could have avoided a
swimming pool for a living room if I had but prepared a bit better.
Perhaps there are some of you who have
lost jobs, or have been involved in an accident which hindered you from making ends meat. Would you have wished for the ability to go back in time and warn your better-off self of ways to prepare? Maybe you would have told yourself to set some of that money aside for food storage and other emergency supplies, so when that job loss or accident did come, you would be OK until you can recover.
If you really think about it, there are probably at least a couple times you weren’t as prepared as you should have been. If only someone from the future had come back in time to warn you about the threat that lies ahead.
Well, fellow citizen of Earth, you’re in luck! Fortunately for you, I come from the future, and I’m here to warn you that life isn’t all safe, easy, and without its problems. From here on out, there is disaster around every corner. The future is always in motion, however, so it’s hard for me to say exactly when it will come. But your decisions today will affect your outcome tomorrow, next month, or even years down the road.
Don’t put off preparing until it’s too late. Take it from me, your voice of warning from the future. There will be problems, and they’re hardly ever what you expect them to be.
What would you tell your past self to do to prepare for the future? Let us know in the comments!
