This is NOT SPAM, Mr Benedict.

Dear J, I hope you are doing well. Very well, in fact. Remember me? I'm you, two years back. I'm sending this so soon because if you're still not anywhere on track by now, you need to get there, quick. At this time, you were terrified, more terrified than you ever felt before. You were waking up in the night in abject fear, night after night, because you didn't know where you were going. Exams are in two months time, and so is your project—more work than anyone could do, but you needed to do it. Well, at this time, you need to do it. You're still scared. Your heart is palpitating, pulsing liquid black terror through your body and brain. It was paralysing. You have so much to do and so little time, J. Remember who you were. Where are you now? Ask yourself: am I still scared? Am I doing well? Still working at that dead-end job in a web-design company? Have any of your plans come to fruition? Did you apply for graduate school? Are you in America yet? Have you been abroad? You need to expand yourself. Go further. Be daring. University is over, you're out in the big, bad world now, and you should be daring, be clever, be audacious. Apply for those positions and those courses you wanted to apply to. You were BRILLIANT. You were a shining star of light, a genius. If a ray of light can't penetrate the darkness of their soul, then nobody can. Grasp your life. Feel inspired. And think about who is sending this. Not you. Not the you now. A you then. You were young, naive, hopeful, ambitious. Even now, I feel this may have been too late. THINK! Can you remember your Sixth Form years? As I'm typing this, I can remember them with shocking clarity and detail, I can actually live the time you were there in my head. THINK! You thought you would get so far, you knew you would get so far. You got an offer from Cambridge, the world was your oyster. THINK! At university, you were described as 'over-conscientious' on your second day, when you handed in your discrete maths assignment straight away. And you got it all right! You could have made a magnificent, unbelievable success of your life if you had only tried. THINK! Feel. Go. Feel. Do. Feel. Be. That is the rhythm, the cycle of achievement and excellence. Feel what you want, what you wish, what you dream for. Get out there and find it. Feel where you are, what needs to be done. Go and do it. Feel the success, the radiant emminence of your achievement. Be yourself. Do this in my name: recite this mantra, and you will reach the stars and be accepted by them. I can see your future as a path leading to a crossroads. If you go one way, you will be one of the proles, one of the masses, just another toiling and unexceptional being. Should you choose the other, you have a chance to become a being of pure incandescence, a transcended human, whose light will illuminate the future even as it recedes into history. Love yourself. Love me. Don't make my fight worth nothing. Imagine green fields, dreamy days, marbled facades and vaulted ceilings: this is where you will stand one day, or my struggle was pointless. Enduring affection, J