A letter from September 20th, 2018

Dear Future Me, Today is September 17, 2018, and I am sitting here, trying not to cry. I’m a senior in high school, sitting in the classroom, struggling to meet this two page minimum for this letter to my future self, only a month into the school year. I have a presentation in sociology today about myself and how things in my life have shaped my perspective and how I see things in the world. You’re 24 years old right now, so I’m sure your life has changed and developed in ways I can’t even imagine right now, but I hope your view on life is as good as it is right now, after everything we’ve gone through up to today. My good friend Eric has brought me a charger for my Chromebook since I forgot to charge it last night, so thanks Eric :). Overall, senior year isn’t all that bad, I’m not overwhelmed with work or study, but in this exact moment, I’m in a bit of a panic because all of this is due tomorrow and I’m a paragraph into this letter. I hope and I pray that you have realized your downfalls in life, and tried to fix them. “Accept your flaws,” said Desiree, even though you probably won’t. As I said, we’re only a month into school, and homecoming is in two weeks and it’s pushing me through all of this right now. I don’t have a date, “as per usual,” according to Desiree (again,) but that’s okay, it’s more fun without one. Anyways, I hope things are going well. I’m not sure where you’re at right now, but I hope you’re still alive and livin’. You must be done with your classes at mid by now, and either at the University of Michigan, or some other college you got accepted to, and I hope your classes are going well and you’re not slacking off. If you are, call Cindy and literally tell her to yell at you, because that’s not cool. You better be drinking water and Gatorade instead of all of that soda, watching how much extra sugar you’re eating (it’s no bueno for your body, even though it tastes so good), and you better still be going to the gym, or doing some sort of other exercises because you can’t just give up and throw in the towel because it hurts. You have to keep pushing yourself to be better than you were before, and that’s something that I’m trying to work on and make progress on, right now. If I’m looking at myself at age 24, in the year of 2025, I hope that I’m as happy as I ever am. I’ve graduated from high school (years ago), done my “time” at MMC and I’m somewhere along getting my 12 years of school done, working towards my doctorate. It doesn’t matter what schools I did or didn’t get into, as long as I’ve put in the work required and am still doing it. You’d better still be doing it. There’s nowhere you can be, that isn’t where you’re meant to be. Just do the best you can, and be the best you can. Everything will work out okay, in the end. I hope you’re not stressing about much, and if you are, drop your shoulders away from your ear, release the tension in your jaw, take a couple deep breaths, and just realize it’ll be okay. Hopefully you didn’t need this, but just in case, I love you, and I’m proud of you. You’re doing great things and you’ll keep doing ‘em. Keep bein’ you, and keep kickin’ ***. :) Love, Your Senior Year Self.