A letter from May 7th, 2020

Dear Jed, Right now we’re reading from your 18-year-old self five years in the past in 2020. We wrote this in Mr. Lodle’s AP English 7-8 class as an end of the year assignment, and I know that you forgot about this until now and a bunch of memories just flooded back (sorry not sorry). So far it has been pretty wack; WW3 almost happened when Iran shot down a passenger plane and a bunch of people were salty about it, then Australia was on fire for about a month, then Kobe died in a helicopter crash (we found out at a Luke 18 meeting in our spider-man costume from Mel), Donald Trump was acquitted in an impeachment trial (I really hope you remember what that means), there are “****** hornets” that just arrived in the US, the pentagon confirmed two videos of UFO’s, and now you’re sitting here writing this letter to yourself in quarantine, the very last thing anyone saw coming -- especially you. Senior year has been pretty good besides the last couple months of it. You saw the cancellation of your final baseball season and the only prom you would have gone to, and you haven’t really seen any of your friends in a while except for a few. Things could be better, but they could also be worse. Hopefully in five years we have all learned from what we are experiencing right now, both the good and bad that has come from it. At the moment, nearly every state is on lockdown, and no one is allowed within six feet of each other. Everyone is wearing masks to go out in public, and people are mad about having to stay inside, including yourself. This is your 18-year-old self speaking, and your views have probably changed a little bit since then (or at least that’s what Dr. Hentze says will happen). That being said, I think this lockdown is totally bullcrap. I’m sure that in your years of experience and learning, though, you will have become wiser and smarter so that you see I was either right or incredibly ignorant to think this way. Right now you’re also dating Kat Rushing, an amazing girl who you’ve been with for roughly two months. Five years is a long time so who knows if you’ll still even be in contact with her; you never know. Her friends are pretty cool too, and one of your best friends is still hung up about one of them (Bailey Skultety). Your dog Pepper is also still freaking crazy, and I hope she is still around when you’re reading this. Also, one last thing: you wrote yourself another one of these letters in Dr. Hentze’s class and is going to mail it to us in five years, too, so don’t freak out if you get more than one of these around the same time. Now for some reminders: Take your own advice and never take anything for granted. If you have an opportunity to do something, even if it is outside of your comfort zone, do it. What’s the worst that could happen? Even if it is a bad experience, you can learn from it and take that with you farther down the road. Continue to challenge yourself. I am sure that being done with college by now you will have been challenged plenty; not to mention you’ll probably be looking for somewhere to live on your own right now if you haven’t already. If something is hard, don’t back down from it. Meet it head on, don’t let it come to you; right now you just figured something out with your hitting (ironic, your season just got cancelled and you finally figure it out) where you swing with your weight behind it. Think of Bryce Harper’s foot coming off of the ground, that’s the feeling you want with your weight shifting. The same concept is happening with meeting these future challenges. Don’t second guess yourself so much. If you make a mistake that’s fine, that’s how you learn anyway. Continue to be competitive. don’t let someone take the job you want or take the same opportunity you want, or maybe even need, because you’re afraid of failure or embarrassment. It’s okay to fail; a .300 average means you fail 7/10 times even if you make some hard contact that are outs. Remember what you’re worth. If someone doesn’t appreciate you for who you are, you should probably leave them behind. “See you ‘round, kid.” (you should know who said this). Sincerely, yourself from five years ago.