A letter from Jun 7th, 2021

Dear FutureMe, By the time you are reading this I hope you have finished college, I really do not not want to do five more years of schooling. Right now, I am a couple days away from graduating, and it honestly could not be going any slower, these last couple weeks have felt like months. Once I start college I will try not to make any choices that screw up your life too badly, I want to make this time go by as easily as possible. If for whatever reason I end up doing drugs, and you get the chance to use a time machine, which yes sounds ridiculous to me, I give you full permission to beat the **** out of me for it and scold me not to do it. Anyways, the point of this letter is to get you to remember the good things about me and it gives you some advice assuming you need it. If I know myself you are probably going to roll your eyes at the advice part because you already know the advice I am going to share. Alright first things first, skills. As August Wilson said in the book Fences "You go on and get your book-learning so you can work yourself up in that A&P or learn how to fix cars or build houses or something, get you a trade. That way you have something can't nobody take away from you.” The main point of this quote is to tell us that the skills and knowledge we pick up throughout the years are things that are attached to us. What he means by “get you a trade. That way you have something can't nobody take away from you,” is that people can take away your opportunities, your possessions, anything physical. They can not take away the skills those objects represent . In the book Cory wants to go off to college to play football, but Tory, his dad who could have played major league baseball, but got shut down because of the color of his skin, does not want him to go because he is afraid Cory will get shut down the same way he did. Tory wants him to get a trade that is stuck with him, stuck in his head so that no one could take his work away from him. With all this being said, my advice to you is that you should never forget your skills of volleyball, skills of any sport, knowledge of random facts, knowledge of sciences, and so on. Just do not forget what you are good at. From here on it gets more and more cliche. There is a quote in the book The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald that goes “Life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all.” This quote is said when Nick reflects on his college life, but only talks about the good things that he did. Basically what I am trying to say is that when you look back on yourself, do not just only see the good things that have happened to you, which is the meaning of “looked at from a single window.” Those good things could have only happened because of the bad things that you have learned from. Remember those bad things so that you can continue to learn from them. This next one is a bit of a reach, but just go with it. So again in The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, there is a quote that goes “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… and then one fine morning—So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” This quote is said at the very end of the book, it is the last couple sentences before the words “The end.” It is used to tell us that some goals and dreams are never meant to be reached,proven by “and then one fine morning—So we beat on,” He cuts himself off to show that everyone tries to reach for these extreme goals, only to get let down in the end. Now here is the stretch, those same goals that can never be reached are meant to guide you, like a star in the night. They are meant to lead you to be a better person or, in Gatsby’s case, to become great. In the book, Gatsby’s dream was to marry Daisy, but could never do it. But because of this goal he had, he reached greatness. He had money, power, and was popular. The only thing he did not have was the girl. The best example I could come up with that might apply to you is the goal of “being a great father.” The moment you believe you are a great father. One, you are egotistical, and two, you failed because, assuming your child has not died, you are still a father, you only reach that once you have died. But this goal will guide you throughout your whole life to be as good a father as you can be. This last one is probably the most cliche of all. In the book Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet says “If it be now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all.” He says this to Horatio when he is preparing to face Laertes in a fencing duel. The whole gist of the quote is that you never know when something unexpected will happen, which is what “If it be now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come,” means in his quote, but you must be ready. Hopefully you have not been through too much suffering, but you will. You must be ready for it, you do not know when it will happen, you might have an idea, but you never know exactly when. You must be ready, otherwise you get shaken to the core and your life could be destroyed. This is an extreme example, but you get the point. Just be ready. If you got this far without skimming, I am kinda surprised. I know I would not have. These are all pieces of advice I believe are worth sharing to you. You may have already known these, but make sure you keep these words in your head until the day you die. Okay, I guess that is a little extreme, but just make sure you remember this when you are struggling. Make choices not for, but for your future self. That is something I wish I understood a couple years ago as I am sitting here with fifty dollars to my name. Anyways, beat on and make your name known.