A letter from May 19th, 2021

Dear Future Me, I was tasked with writing myself a letter to share about who I am today, where I plan to be tomorrow, as well as something encouraging to help the future me cross the finish line of senior year. This assignment is comical to me because my older brother, Josh, is about to graduate high school; and boy have I learned a lot from watching and listening to he and mom’s long ‘discussions’ about not giving up when he’s this close to a diploma. Junior high for me, started off just like every other year of school - for the most part. My grades were honestly the best they’d ever been… I was rocking my trumpet in Band and I was taking AP Math in 6th grade! Then out of nowhere, everything I knew about life and school came to a screeching stop on my 13th birthday and the phrase, “global pandemic” became a household phrase that - I swear – will never end. Suddenly, and without warning, I was now going to school on my computer and KVA became a household thing too. This is where things went from ‘ok’ to ‘Lord take me now’. Eight weeks into KVA, while serving out my quarantine sentence from the world, my grades thankfully stayed the same – straight A’s in every class. As the summer of 2020 came and went, I was hopeful that I would continue making the same grades in 7th grade. However, that hopefulness faded quicker than Grayson’s Xbox v-buck account at the start of the new Fortnite season. As you might remember, 7th grade was the year we were in Mrs. Ballard’s 7th KAP Math class. I mean it started out good, then my math grade went from ‘ok’ to ‘Houston we have a problem’, and l didn’t know why. That fall semester was the hardest one I had ever had; I tanked every test in that class. I kept telling mom that I thought it was my teacher Mrs. Ballard's fault, which mom didn’t believe. I learned a lot about myself during all of this. I learned that not speaking up when I don’t understand something only hurts me – not the teacher. In the spring I was able to convince mom to let me switch back to KVA so that I could change math teachers. Que in Mr. Noto… the BEST math teacher ever (except Mrs. Blankenship)!! My only regret was that I wished that I had been in his class sooner, because he ‘spoke Matthew’, which as you can imagine is not easily done. In fact, I made my first A and A+ on two assignments while in his class. This boosted my ego a little too much and I got sloppy with the effort I was putting in. l didn’t worry as much about getting the assignments turned in, as l was when I was failing - but oh boy that was the biggest mistake of the year! l ended up on the verge of not passing and ultimately failing the year. Mom had had enough with my lack of effort and grounded me from Xbox until my grades improved – even if it took until finals. I was so mad when she punished me, I lived for playing Xbox with my friends. That punishment was the best decision because I ended up passing the semester (barely) by like a nut hair. Turning 16 can’t come soon enough, because the second l get my driver license, l will be out applying for a job. I mean money doesn’t grow on trees – at least that's what they tell me. I realize that someone must help mom around the house and help teach the young, the way of the wise “this is the way”- Mandalorian. When I graduate high school, I will be attending college. As of now, I either want to pursue becoming a doctor or a technician of sorts. I want to help innovate and improve technology for doctors to help kids like me, come up with solutions for kids that are told ‘you are a unicorn in the medical community’ – because no kid wants to hear that, something I know all too well. After I accomplish that, I want to donate my research and knowledge to find a cure for the Basin Syndrome---a super rare genetic syndrome that has only affected 11 other people, besides myself in the world. Hopefully finding that cure will lead me to figure out and understand how I got this syndrome and why my gene mutated – maybe one day I can cure this for me – I am thinking we will call it the “ABS - Anti-Basin Syndrome”. If I have learned anything in my 14 years on earth, to date, it’s that nothing in life is free and that doing the bare minimum will only get you bare minimum results. I found it funny that I was asked to write this now, not just because I am in 7th grade, but because Josh is graduating high school now which gives me lots of lessons learned and material to write. Also, procrastination is NOT the key to success – Josh proved that all senior year, oh the ‘discussions’ I heard between him and mom. There will be times you will think that the stuff you are asked to do and learn in school is stupid and pointless – but do it anyway – I have a feeling we will need some of the stupid knowledge at some point, so why hurt yourself later. Remember, winners never quit! Matthew