A letter from Jul 4th, 2021

Dear Justin Monisit, Today is July 4th, 2021 right after the Pandemic ended. You're currently finishing up VEEP and struggling to read the Queen's Gambit. Currently halfway through Hollow Knight. This is also right before the trip you took with your family to go "camping" and a break from TOTVille. You are still urging to want to play the piano again. The rift in the family is still mending. You are primarily a PC Gamer with two monitors and only recently got a new controller. Snapchat is your primary form of communication aside from Twitter (though you use it a lot less now) and Reddit is basically your form of social media. TVTropes you still like to scroll through. You're trying to stop having YouTube be your primary form of entertainment and return to your more artistic days of video games, tv, and movies being something you take seriously (but not too seriously like before). Also good on you for being a moderate Libertarian :) Movies are no longer your primary passion - and tbh, nothing at the moment is aside from playing video games (seriously this time around as an artistic medium). You're coasting along with your two podcasts: Not Just Any Book Club (chaotic, but we're working on it) and Not Just Any RPG - which is a lot of fun. Just got finished recording and uploading episode 11 in which Princeton Philips stops by a town and sees absolutely nothing. RICHARD. I hope that you completed graduate school really well and are en route to becoming a successful Occupational Therapist because those grad school loans are insane. Currently eyeing Stockton University - but that may change, just take the cheapest option. I hope you didn't sacrifice your social life to make do with everything. Maybe finally you've broken the curse and actually settled down with someone. You are an adult now - finally free from your parents' reign and you are independent. You should be 26 years old, almost 30 which is a disgusting age. You should remember how short life is - 30 is now the new 40. I really hope you picked up the piano and learned to rekindle that love you once had for playing music. I hope that you kept in contact with the core friend group - or moved on and made more friends. Or finally in the process of living alone. I have no idea where I will have moved. Colorado was the state I eyed the most, but I have no idea at this point. Texas? Florida? Not Commie-fornia. I'm predicting I chose hand OT to be my specialty, and as much as my icy heart warmed working with kids at TOTVille, I can't imagine that being my livelihood for the rest of my life. Just recently they introduced methods to treat my "tongue-tie" which doesn't affect my daily life, but may as well be treated. I just hope that you aren't living with your parents still. Mega lame if that is the case (unless there is a whole new pandemic out there). I don't know what my passions will be in the future; it used to be movies, but now that's not for sure. Television just takes too long. I love reading QUALITY books, struggle to get through ones I don't like. Video games are fun but I'm not taking them as seriously as people would expect - and that's okay. Whatever my passion is, just indulge in them and make sure you love them. You've learned that your passions should not define you, but they should be an integral part of you life still. Find someone who understands this - friend or otherwise. There is not much going on in my life at the moment. Everything came to a standstill once the pandemic hit. But, I became a leader in my AnP class and I only wish that momentum carried through AnP 2 in person. The Professor knows me well and the class basically loves me - to toot my own horn. I am a stats tutor, but everyone else is WAY smarter than me. Though, I have received an email about having an apprentice of some sorts. Interesting. I hope that I am living a good life this time. I know life has immensely improved after high school ended, but I've always felt like there was something more to it than what I've already experienced. I've gotten into a routine, but it's not meaningful and I want to break out of it. I've been flirting with the idea of starting a solo podcast as a creative outlet, piano again, or learning ASL. My social life is basically dead unfortunately since high school is basically done except for a few people that I keep in contact with via Snap, Twitter, and text. I still make twitch.tv/skrubiee jokes. Because of course I do. And obviously, I've flirted with the idea of becoming a published writer - novel or film. And I'm sure that has not died yet - you just have never put in the work to do so. By the time I read this: I will have completed my Masters Degree in OT and be working a full time job in a specialization, be in relatively decent shape after grad school destroyed that, be in the process of or already have moved out, and be in a relationship that I call "the one" way too early. Just this once: let something good happen to you by letting it happen not by chance or from someone else, but from your own actions. Don't be a passive protagonist in your own story - whether you are a background character, a supporting role, or the lead make sure you win that Oscar. I hope the country's political divide has healed and that we are on the good path forward. I aspire to be proud of my President again and not treat politics like the joke it is right now. And I also really hope you voted for a Libertarian :) [Prediction is that Ron DeSantis is the President, much to my dismay] Right now, I am hopeful that my life will go well and just hope that in 5 years, this will still hold true. Reading this should wake you up to the reality you live in, for better or for worse. I like my life the way it is now, but it is not the way I want to be living forever. I hope you've taken the first 21 years of your life to heart and know how you want to live; only just recently I've realized my potential and wish I could have done more, and I only wish that this trend doesn't continue. Give my life some meaning. I don't know if I'll be in a freak accident or life throws me another curveball; it is not an excuse not to live a life that I know I should be living. I've already settled and coasted for far too long - 21 years of life and I'm still waiting. I only hope that at 26 I've found what I wanted to do and have already done it. Make me jealous. Happy America Day!