A letter from Jan 2nd, 2022

Dear FutureMe, Hello, I just got.. our? email from... us? from 2018, it was super interesting to read so I am writing another one. At the moment I am 18, it just turned 2022 two days ago. I'll tell you whats been happening lately, we had an awesome party last night, we had michelle, charli, hannah, leah, austin, carsten and maxim over for karaoke and dancing, everyone had a great time, there was heaps of food, good company. Tomorrow the girls and carsten and maxim and I have been invited to some walk out near gisbon i think, lerderderg, carsten hasn't sent me the details yet, but it should be fun. I got my license about a month after i turned 18, so it's been great being able to drive around to places and not having to ride my bike everywhere. I recently started my job at "The Learning Sanctuary," which i really enjoy actually, I love the kids there, the staff are cool and friendly, it's just a chill work environment, i earn $29 an hour which i couldn't believe how much it was when i got the job, like an 18 year old earning $29, it's awesome, so i usually get like around 1,500-2,000 dollars a fortnight and i am paying $100 a week in board, so saving up for things will be pretty easy haha. The only thing i can think that i want to save up for at the moment is probably a car and i also want to get lasik eye surgery, which you can only get after you turn 21, so maybe i'll make this email arrive when i turn 21 just for fun. In my email from 2018 I asked a lot of questions which were quite funny to read so many years later because a couple of things i forgot about, or it wasn't relevant anymore so i'll do that in this one too. Do you still live in Melbounre? Do you still live with mum and dad? Has jordan grown out of being an annoying teenager, hes been really difficult to live with the past year or so, always being sarcastic and never thinking of others, but i remember being the same way when i was his age so i suppose i can't blame him, its just hormones i guess. Are you dating anyone? I asked that in my 2018 email too, but I am not dating anyone as you know, in fact i don't even have a crush on anyone at the moment either. My best friends at the moment are Divina, i keep in regular contact with her and we just talk so easily so its not a chore at all. I see hannah and michelle and charli the most often in person, but our family also hangs out with Leah, the azzopardi's, carsten and maxim, sometimes the fursman family, and just others in the williamstown cong. I also keep in touch with Ashlee and India still, but not super often, maybe every other month. I can't think who else i keep in touch with, i feel like i'm forgetting someone... oh well. Are you still working at the place i just mentioned? Did you do your diploma? my view on it now is I can't be bothered doing another year of study, and someone at work told me its an extra $2 on your paycheck, and im like... hmm more responsibility and a whole year of study for $2 pay rise, not sure about that, but i suppose its always an option. I just signed up for the LDC, volunteering thing, idk what its called properly, so hopefully i can go out and do some gardening at melton soon, and whatever else comes my way with that. Hows darcy going, i hope hes still alive, or maybe you don't see him as much if you moved away (i doubt it though). At the moment my... little idea i have is wanting to get a camper van and kind of live out of it for maybe 6 months or a year, idk if that'll come about though. Mum and I have lots of games of scrabble lately, we seem to be about even in wins and losses, but it's fun, and something to do for an hour. Oh i'll give you an update on what stuff i'm into at the moment, so I still love the Beatles, they're my top favourite band/artist by far, and they have been since like 2017 I think. My spotify wrapped said the artists i listened to this year was 1. the Beatles 2. The kinks 3. the beach boys 4. the hollies 5. the eagles. I read 60 books this year... actually it was last year, 2021. Some favourites include: True Grit, The Secret History, The Day of the Triffids, a couple of jules verne books, a couple of Agatha Christie, Gone with the Wind for sure, Jane Eyre definitely, The Picture of Dorian Gray (I have read some of these before but theyre so good that it's an honourable mention), Lord of the rings trilogy, North and South, The Hidden Life of Trees (very interesting) and A Room with a view. I hope i keep reading a lot over the next couple of years... well for the rest of my life really, i'm not sure if i'll achieve 60 again though because I had a lot of free time during lock down and being in between courses and starting work. We've been going to the movies heaps lately, we went to see the latest james bond, no time to die i think its called, ironically he died, which i thought was a shame because theres so many movies, why **** him off now, but theres still plenty of those i haven't seen so oh well, I did love the Sean Connery ones the best so far. We saw spider man three with jenny, i'm sick of super hero movies, i'm gonna not watch anymore if i can help it. Then we saw the french dispatch with leah and hannah, it was pretty funny and quirky i enjoyed it, i do want to watch it again with subtitles, and we saw dune with jenny, wich was pretty cool with the like scene set ups and backgrounds, but it was a bit convoluted for me, maybe it's better if you read the book. Then we saw west side story with all the girls, leah and rebecca fursman, which was great, it was pretty much the same as the original but better cinematography and set design and actors, so that was good. Mum and i just finished watching a room with a view (not at the movies just at home) because we had both just read the book, and i love that movie, i do prefer to watch it alone though because of the bathing scene hahaha. It's such a good movie, and i really enjoyed the book to, i recommend reading it again when you get this if you haven't already. I'm also quite into plants and gardening, not hardcore into it like mary darragh or something, but i do have a lot of pot plants and i enjoy things to do with gardening and planting, is my peace lily still alive? i'm worried about it because some of the leaves are turning yellow, and if it dies ill be devo because its grown so big. I'm trying to think what else to say... Hmm, well i got a little marshall bluetooth speaker for free because of NDIS and mum pulling some strings, which is awesome because they cost like $300. I'm not planning on getting a car yet while i'm living in melbourne because the public transport and my access to the family car makes it not worth it, plus I like the fact i can save a large chunk of my paychecks at the moment because i'm not paying for bills, car rego, etc. I do enjoy drawing and painting at the moment, i don't do it very regularly though, i do want to paint a big like nature scene on canvas and hang it on my room, but i haven't had any inspiration or motivation. The Tennis is coming soon in Janurary, we have tickets to go 3 times, one of the time is the 4th round, so that'll be cool, i also really want to go see the car racing, i forget what its called, but i think its a good idea to go do these kind of events while your living near them, if the advantages of the city are there you might as well use them so that it outweighs the disadvantages. We saw paul kelly about a month ago, it was pretty cool, everyone was dancing and having a good time, but there was that whole drama with dad, if you want to re-live that i wrote it in my journal, its the red/brown leather one, idk if you'll still be writing a journal so often that you'll be using a different book in like 3 years but i thought i'd make it easier to find it. I do write somewhat regularly, maybe once a week, I do love writing a journal just to vent, or to have an account of some event that happened so i can remember it in years to come. I saw a video about journaling once and the person said something that i thought was interesting which was, your brain is like a computer and your memories are like the storage, and sometimes your brain has to clear out storage to make room for other things, so by writing it down its like having a hard drive to keep storage on when it doesn't fit in your brain anymore, which i think is true, a favourite past time of mine is reading through old journals every year or so just to laugh and what i was like and to remember stuff that was happening. As Oscar Wilde wrote in the importance of being earnest "I never trabel without my diary. One must always have something sensational to read on the train." You'd better have been to see some other live music in the past 3 years, at the moment i've only seen two artists live, paul mccartney and paul kelly, which they were both amazing, mccartney especially, but yeah. Well i've run out of things to say i think, so i suppose i'll end it here, 1761 words is quite long, (its slightly more as i keep writing), so yeah, i hope all is doing well, i think at the moment i've been quite lucky with my job being so close and something i enjoy, i have good spiritual friends who i do things with regularly, the cong i'm in is great, i also enjoy living in melbounre there's always stuff happening and good food, so i hope it continues going smoothly haha. Alright well i hope you enjoyed reading it, i already know you will... because you're me. I'll see you in 3 (and a bit) years, when you're 21. Bye From, Bella