While I was packing for “The Big Move, Numero 19” last night, I found a letter that I’d written to myself when I was 14. It was tucked into my 8th grade yearbook and addressed to ‘Future Me.’
The letter made me cry. ’14-year-old Reannon’ had put so much faith in the future. I’d been so confident that I’d one day become ‘a rich, famous, career woman’ (Yep, those were my exact words)…I sounded almost cocky.
It’s funny because I’d been so paranoid that someone would find my letter. Back then, I couldn’t think of anything more humiliating and had written ‘PRIVATE PROPERTY – DO NOT READ’ all over the borders of the page. ‘Past Me’ would’ve have been so mortified if she’d known that I’d one day be sharing those same words with the Blog-o-Sphere…something that didn’t even exist back then.
I won’t bore you with the details of the first three quarters of the letter. It’s mostly a summary of the school year, followed by a three paragraph rant about the ‘shallow and mean’ popular girls. They’d been pretty much the focus of my life back then. But the last paragraphs are interesting.
“I hope that you’re traveling, Future Me,” I’d written. “I also hope that you’re helping the world somehow. Right now people have gone off course. People seem to have forgotten what they’re here for. And I am going to try to help them. You better be doing something good for the world! If you haven’t done that yet, do it now!
I know that I have a lot of expectations for you, Future Me. But you are smart. You are here for a reason. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise. The world you live in and your life are gifts. Appreciate those gifts. Appreciate your life and the place you live in. Don’t take it for granted. Don’t abuse it.
I hope you are not reading this and thinking how naive I am. That is the best advice I can give you and I hope you live every day to its fullest and stay on course.
Best of luck to you, never forget me.
Love (and I do love you),
Your younger self.”
It’s funny how sometimes, the best advice is the advice you can give yourself; the advice that comes from within. I needed a confidence boost…and my younger self reached out through time to give it to me.
I wonder if, 14 years from now, I’ll re-read what I wrote in this blog and think that I sounded as young, naive and preachy at 26, as I did at 14.
…Probably. : )
Yikes! I wish I had that kind of foresight at 14. Also, I somehow feel my linguistic capacity was significantly lower than yours. It kind of feels like you found it at the right time, yes?
Btw, I don't know if you yet announced where you were heading…did I miss it?
I just moved last weekend and I found the same exact thing, a letter written to myself when I was a sophmore in high school. I had such hopes and aspirations but was never too unrealistic about the future :). Great blog!
Really? You prob wouldn't think that if you saw how I'd misspelled every other word. : )
I went to this hippie school growing up which was really art-focused. A lot of our time was spent sitting outside writing stories or painting…that might have had something to do with it.
No, I haven't mentioned where I'm going next…because I'm not 100 percent sure yet! I don't want to announce something only to have to retract it later. I'm not ready to talk about it just yet. But I'm packing and preparing for it just in case.
minsmyname,
What did your letter say? Anything good? Do you remember why you wrote it?
I love reading old diary entries. I've kept journals since I was in the fourth grade and it's so funny to read what was going on in my head back then. Especially as a teenager…I was so dramatic back then! Even more so than now, if that's possible. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and tell myself to just chill out…not worry so much.