A letter from Jun 10th, 2021

Dear FutureMe, 17 year old you here: I’m bittersweet. I’m so sad to see all of my Senior friends going, but I’m also excited for a summer filled with things to do. I already have so many plans, I just got a job, it’s great. But I’m going to miss the classroom and seeing people I’ve known since middle school. I always do, and the saddest bit is that I only get to do it one more time. This is it, I’m at the end of this experience and it’s literally the longest thing ever and it’s just coming to an end abruptly. It’s daunting, scary even, to know that I may never even see or talk to 99% of these people again. This is a community I have been in my entire life and I’m just about to leave it and possibly never come back. It’s a scary experience and as of right now I am scared and excited for the future. It didn’t feel like “school”, it just felt like a set schedule of things I was doing. I saw my friends, I met my teachers, but it didn’t feel like school, it felt different. I remember being in Mr.Schmalz class and being excited for the year, but it didn’t feel like school. I wasn’t lost, I knew where I was going, I felt comfortable at the school, it just didn’t FEEL like school. I want to feel connected to my community, feel like I am a central part of something, whether that something is new or an already established thing. I want to feel apart of a community that I like being in, where I love the people around me and feel like I’m living my best life. I want to keep in contact with the best people I’ve met in my life so far, I want to have important things mean something to me, I don’t want ot be accomplished and successful, I want to be happy and fulfilled. Maybe I’ll be teaching somewhere, maybe I’ll be writing for an online magazine, maybe I’ll be taking photos, perhaps I’ll be editing videos for a living, who knows where the path will take me. I don’t want to determine it either, I want it to unfold perfectly for me, with twists and turns that lead me to the right place with the right feelings and thoughts that I need to thrive. Bye *****