Time Travelled — about 3 years

A letter from October 21st, 2011

Oct 21, 2011 Oct 31, 2014

Peaceful right?

Dear Future Me, Are you still alive? Or have you done something stupid (as per usual) and gotten yourself killed? If the latter, and someone else is reading this, know that I love you, whoever you are! You are a part of me, and played an integral role in my happiness. For that, I thank you with all my heart! I guess I should begin with a little about myself, in case you’ve forgotten. I'm finishing up the last credit I need to graduate with a Bachelors of Arts Degree - more specifically a Specialist in Bioethics. I'm still working at Wind, and it hasn't yet gotten stale or depressing. We’ll see how long that lasts. I still have that nagging feeling that my friends – my kind, hilarious, genius-intellect friends – are very quickly leaving me behind. However, I mustn’t forget that saying I love: “At the end of the game, the King and the Pawn go back into the same box.” Rejoice in the concept of improvement; if you cannot win the race, you can at least take solace in improving your time. That isn’t to say though, that I shouldn’t – you shouldn’t – be aiming to achieve the goals I have set for myself. Upwards and onwards. I have so many questions for you! First, how are you! How is your health? Have you set a new career-high in weight/muscle mass? I only recently discovered the relevance of “no pain no gain," and I've been trying to exercise more regularly. Regardless, my first and foremost hope is that you are healthy. But what good is being healthy if you are not also happy? Are you still laughing at all the things I laugh at? That you once laughed at? Or does my letter to you fill you with even more of that bittersweet melancholy with which it fills me? The small changes that occur daily add up, my friend; you might not think that things have changed, but I can almost guarantee you that they have. I can almost guarantee that you have. Here are some of my hopes for you/me. I hope you can think more quickly on your feet than I could on mine. Corollary to that, I hope you are wittier, snappier, and quicker to action. However, all this is a lost effort if you have not improved upon my ability to think critically and logically. I’m hot-headed; hopefully you’ve cooled down. I hope that your friendships are still in full force. Hopefully you’ve even developed some new ones too. Hopefully you’ve kept in touch with Carl, Timur, Tadashi, Andra, Peter, and the rest of those that might have moved away since. Maybe you’ve even visited some of them. Do you have that motorcycle yet? Remember that this is something you’ve wanted. Remember that this is one of the few (many?) illogical decisions that you will make or will have made. It’s expensive, it’s impractical, it’s dangerous. My only wish is that it’s worth it! To the tougher questions we go. What’s the job situation like? Have there been opportunities? I'm okay with trying and failing. I'm not okay with not trying. Of course, I can understand that this is easy to tell yourself, but over time, it can and likely will get to you. I must sound like a broken record, but mass application can only do so much; I’m going to try to be more diligent in my applications from now on, for your sake. Don't get complacent. Thing's don't stay easy for long. Innovate or die. It's taken me months to write this email. I've even forgotten which future-email service I was going to use to send this email, but I'll figure it out. Hao and Mike and I are starting a joint venture to create something big. I wonder if it's worked out! You can tell me all about it. I'd have attached a picture of myself so that you know that I am sincere in my best wishes to you, best wishes for my future, but I guess I can't attach anything. Have the years been kind to this (my) glorious face? Only time will tell. Have you noticed the recurring theme here? It’s rather easily summarized in a word: hope. I had high hopes for you, Andrew. I like you, I think, but don't worry, I am not so much goal-oriented, so the only real disappointment you could deal to me would be an absence of improvement. I wish to be more than merely 3 years older. I wish to be 3 years wiser from the lessons only time can teach. But maybe, just maybe, you’ll be even more than that. Hopefully you have become more than I ever thought I could be. Safe travels, You (Me)

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