A letter from December 27th, 2020

Dear FutureMe, Well, it has been a year. Five years, or at least, five years since I wrote the email that I just received. A great deal has happened in those five years; as most of it hasn't happened directly to me, but to the wider world, I shan't bother addressing it. It will be in the history books. Maybe with greater understanding than now. My 2015 email was quite hopeful. This will not be. The covid-19 crisis rumbles on, new variants causing increasingly rapid transmission. I would like to imagine that the vaccines and treatments being rolled out as I write this will be successful, but I daren't be too hopeful. I can say that, as of now, I've not been vaccinated myself. That might change soon. Writing in 2015, I expected that I'd have enjoyed the Olympics and Euros this year, but they didn't happen. Hopefully, come 2025, I'll have enjoyed a lot of sporting events. Speaking of sport, I wonder how much Test cricket - and FC cricket, for that matter - will still be played in 2025. Hopefully a lot. But I have grave doubts. It seems as though this is being taken away from us at a fierce rate. Football is also changing, with VAR new and problematic - will that be better in 2025, or just an accepted norm? - and tiresome discussions of European Super Leagues. Not tiresome because I feel they won't happen (unsure on that), but because the whole elite level of the game is now utterly tiresome. I don't expect that will have improved at all by 2025. Rugby union is also going down a worrying road, following a recent agreement with noted sport-ruiners CVC. More pressingly, more worryingly, both sports are facing rapidly growing evidence of neurological damage caused by play, not just by concussion but by repeated small impacts. I have no idea how this will play out. I hope 2025 has better answers. But I also fear 2025 will see heads having been stuck in the sand, with disastrous results for individuals and the wider sports. In politics, a deal with the EU has just been reached, and it's terrible - as it was always going to be - but this might mean that the next five years has different political discussions than the last five. It would be nice to imagine that, as you read this, Keir Starmer is Prime Minister. He probably won't be. I expect the election between now and then to be profoundly unfair, and distorted in the Tories' favour. On a related note, as I write this, the current American president - if he can be called president any more - is still refusing to accept his defeat to Joe Biden. I worry about January; hopefully time will prove those worried unfounded. But I also worry greatly about the long term, and about whether the US will ever have a fair Presidential election again, or whether the GOP will rig 2024 and every year thereafter. They are clearly no longer a party of democracy. Personally, not a lot has happened in the past five years. I'm still in this terrible flat, but am trying to fix that. Perhaps, by 2025, I might own my own place - am considering that now, but who knows what the future holds? My immediate target is to rent somewhere new as soon as possible, though, and saving for a deposit can wait until after that. Also still working for the ambulance service, and getting nowhere. I would very much like to be in a significantly better position in 2025, to be respected and paid fairly and to have opportunities. It probably won't happen. It's difficult to be hopeful after all these years. Honestly, it's difficult to be hopeful about most things. 2020 has been a **** year, but the threat of even worse ones looms heavily. But even on a personal level... I just want things to be a bit better, to have some small things that normal people get automatically. Is that so bad? Probably. I dread the thought that I'll read this in 2025 and feel like 2020 was a blessing, before everything got so much worse. Keep warm, and safe, Yourself.