A letter from May 19th, 2020

Dear FutureMe, Happy Birthday! I'm excited to meet you. I hope you're doing well in a place you love. Right now, I'm currently in my bed (a place I love) in my Chemistry class Webex. I'm not in the best mood right now, I'm feeling very claustrophobic. I read that scientists or whoever are saying that we aren't going to remember most of this quarantine, so I figured I'd take the time to tell you about things I want you to remember. First off, how's your French? If I'm gonna be real with you right now, I'm betting you've dropped it by now. It's a bit difficult to discipline myself, you know, with no teacher and all. Plus I do have school work (not a lot, but enough). But on the optimistic side, I am able to read some things and pick out words in movies and songs. I wasn't able to do that about two months ago. Last week I embroidered my first shirt! I embroidered the "sorry baby x" from ******* Eve. Speaking of ******* Eve, this hyper fixation has taken over your life right now because I think we're all in need of something to obsess over during these times. You're probably cringing at those last sentences. Back to embroidery. I am currently in the middle of this rather large design. I'm paused right now though because I ran out of thread. I hope you still have the shirt because from the looks of it, the final piece is going to be awesome. I started running during the first week of lockdown. A little over two months later, I haven't run for about a week because it's been very difficult to get up in time to go and dad won't let you go out after dark. It would be lovely to hear if you still run at least occasionally or are doing something else physically productive. Also, I hope you have your license by now. Driving has been really fun, but not with mom. After she yelled at me that one time I've been scared ever since. If/when you get the chance, I want you to go for a drive by yourself at either dawn or dusk while listening to Heard it in a Past Life by Maggie Rogers. She's been the soundtrack to your life these past few months, specifically while you've been learning how to drive. I have a feeling it'll be a real vibe for you. I don't mean to get too emo with you right now, but I feel that it's necessary to talk about your current feelings. It's a lonely world, yet all you desire is to be alone right now. It's very confusing and not fun at all. Talks about where higher education is going to be after this ends is scaring the **** out of you because all you've been dreaming about if escaping to college. You've been having so many doubts about how good enough you are and to be honest, I think it's slowly ******* you. Time goes fast but never fast enough. So I hope you've been finding your footing. I want to tell you that you've been guiding my actions. What I do, I do for you. One day I want to treat you like you deserve the world and hopefully give it to you, too. I set this to send on your 21st birthday because that's supposed to be a milestone right? Happy birthday and I hope you're with the people you love, even if it means you're only with yourself. A bientôt, Alex, age 15