Dear future me,
If you are an adult, you may easily dismiss what your younger self had to say.
This stems from the belief that young people are egocentric and have not seen much of the world. Young people often believe everything is about them and that the world revolves around them.
Even though we’re all grown up now, we still crave to be held, loved and validated as we did when we were younger. I would urge you to listen to your younger self. There is a lot of wisdom to be gained.
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I discovered this website called FutureMe a couple of years ago which allows you to send a letter and/or email to your future self. The letter can be delivered as early as six months or even 10 years down the line, depending on what you choose.
I had never written something like this before. But I finally wrote one on Feb. 16. I did this because I feel like my past self always had insightful things to say. When I look back to all the things I've written in my journal over the years, I find a version of me who always found her way into believing what she knew to be true in her heart all along.
I don’t know whether I read about the power of manifestation in “The Secret” or “The Alchemist,” but I believe in it regardless. I feel like it always works out for me — manifestation, I mean. So why not write a letter to a future you and let the universe do its magic? Obviously, this does not mean you should be ignorant and let the universe do all the work for you, but it's nice to have a helping hand sometimes. Especially when things aren't in your control.
You may gawk at this, saying it is too cliched, but my life feels like straight out of a movie sometimes. And the plot twists are major — if you could buy a ticket to the show, you would not be disappointed.
Receiving a letter from your past is like a time-travelling version of you that has something to say. Sometimes, people in movies travel back in time and change things, but I wouldn't change anything. That’s just always how I have been.
This desire to write letters is also deeply rooted in the fact that I don't see many people write letters to each other nowadays. So, I might as well write one to myself.
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Find a quiet place so that you have no distractions. If you need some prompts to get started, I have a few: What are you proud of in your life? Where do you see yourself in the future? What are the values you want to foster? Who do you want to be? Are there any objectives you want to achieve? Write from your heart and hit that send button.
As Leon sings, “Hey, baby, I wanna lift you up.”
You can be your biggest cheerleader.
Sanjana Jairam (she/her) is a first-year graduate student studying data science.
