A letter from January 24th, 2020

Peaceful right?

Dear FutureMe, This is gonna be either short or long. When you receive this you will be in senior year of college and hopefully this comes as a surprise. If you do make it to senior year of whatever college, I'm proud of you. I'm so so so proud of you. I don't know what you will look like or what you will have done but I hope it's everything that you and I could be proud of. Have you made new friends? Do you still keep in contact with Mawi, Mercy, Mary, Rose, Judith, Shirley Rosely, etc.? Or are you kicking yourself because you haven't and you feel guilty? Currently, I'm a junior in high school and tomorrow I'm supposed to volunteer for Mrs. Berghoff, one of our favorite teachers. What's happening in the world now? Are you happy? Do you have kids? Have you found a boyfriend? Anything? I'm excited for whatever you experienced. Please don't waste time thinking. Go tell mom and dad you love them. Go tell U and Sang you love them. Be spontaneous, be happy. Please be happy. Whatever you do, please be happy. Time is precious and so are you. Don't hold onto the what-ifs because they didn't happen. Be happy with what you have and just be you.

Epilogue

about 7 hours later

Hi 17 year old me,

Let's start with the good things first. NO, I'M NOT A MOM. WHY WOULD YOU THINK YOU'D BE A...

M?mo amlo guony. A c!legleo in 4 ctkra on ot and minreatkg 'im m'i rtaudage amnjgori ntmosh nsrioe in in yya!. A elfyms of otu sseiepvder a dna magdnea tol tstea gdi endo e'vi ot of nintrihesps depe. Odt'n i it even x2 nowk drviuesv uy(o thhguo i covid lo)l tye ogt. Raym, adn meyrc, htwi rseindf irsoe mi' tllsi dut,hij. . . Be erforev oyu lecso duyo' hte satndit thhuogt enos ubt iwht ot. Ewn doufn ni eebohp rpusrseid be dfneir a ouy ttah uy'lol. Si t,hta ewtn i to rade cn!y het ailfnly ogod itsnhg adn em, ho, ehrwe ldo den and. .
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Rtehe otw i ni tekdla 'tahnev ryesa sigrl hte to. I evah dan i 'otdn ahve ryo,ibfedn a eenrv. A gin)!th godo is (isth.
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Adn. . . E'hs uoy nt'wo ietm runoda eebevli is my tbu adn htsi !aaign oersw purtm lgi,r read it, tesperndi. Butoa woredri utb yaok genyenuli eb nigs,ht 'im i'll. .
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I cdviae, tbu oyu orf take yruo ti tnhka otnw'. Be nac i anc sootpasneun ton tujs eb i payhp, adn ont. Ryrso m'i. Phyap ton 'mi. A bad itme oyu achtug ta em. I dan a,yeh ngoerl yueo'r eht roivlt be on utsj icnr!ashti rgsupo, neo rfom a esengi iertacn ahet lla ,oh nad atfre tn'ca.
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Eby! lal, 'ttahs.