Why I Don't Want Time Travel

I recently watched a video about a game called "5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel," which is almost exactly what it says on the box. It's chess, except that the pieces can move back in time to create branching timelines. Checkmate any opposing king in any timeline, and you win, but bear in mind that the king might travel back in time to escape what might otherwise have been a checkmate, or the king that you put in check in the past may receive reinforcements from the future. It's insane. But what's interesting is that, according to the video essayist, there's a consensus in the 5D chess community that using time travel just isn't worth it. Creating a new timeline somehow helps the opponent more than it helps you. The essayist speculates that there may be a deeper meaning to be gleaned from the strategic unviability of time travel in 5D Chess:

Perhaps the game's true purpose is to teach us that time travel wouldn't actually fix our problems after all, that it only ever makes them more complicated, and that the best option is to fix them now, in the present, without dwelling on the impossible fantasy of rewriting your own past.

I have a few mistakes in my past that I'd like to rewrite, but doing so would change my life in unpredictable and possibly undesirable ways. I am the person that I am partly because of the mistakes I've made and the lessons I've learned from them. I'd definitely be tempted to rewrite the past if I could, but I have no idea what that would mean for my new future, so I'm probably better off leaving my past as is.

Yet, that doesn't mean that I can't learn from the past. I can take my past as is, mistakes and all, and build myself a better future. I can use my past mistakes to learn to make better choices in the present, which will lead me to a better future. I can't change my past, but I can determine my future.

There are some aspects of my past that I'd like to change. Doubtless, you do, too. But even if we could change our pasts, we have no idea how our lives would turn out differently if we did. Perhaps it's best to leave the past as it is and to work toward a better future. I've made bad decisions, but I'd like to think I'm learning from them. If my past mistakes ultimately help me become a better person than I would have been without them, then I hope I would be wise enough not to change them, even if I could.