January 29, 2005

Hey girl,

It’s me. I mean it’s you – coming at you from 10 years in the future. Freaky, right?

I just wanted to check in and let you know in a vague way with no clear spoiler alerts what the future holds for you, my dear.

I know you think you know the answer to where you will be 10 years from now – but let me tell ya, you are dead wrong.

So very laughably wrong.

You think your life from here on out involves going to the same job where you’ve been showing up every day for 5 years and slowly slipping into a corporate coma from which you think you will never awaken.

You think you are done. Coasting from here on out with the relationship you are in, the kids you have, trudging along (happily trudging, but trudging nonetheless) toward retirement.

Let me tell you girlfriend – you are in for one hell of a plot twist. Actually a bunch of them.

The kids are doing great of course, they are and have always been the best thing ever. They are smarter than you now and somewhat disdainful of your dismal memory in terms of advanced math. But they are healthy and happy and hysterically funny and TALLER than you. Sigh.

Professionally speaking – I don’t even know what to tell you. Enjoy the drift for the next couple of years because it goes all over the damn place after that.

Some good – you meet some of the coolest people ever and do fun things you never even knew about before. Did you know you love to write? I KNOW – where did that come from?

It’s a bit of a roller coaster from here on out – you escape the corporate thing (yay!), start some fun projects of your own (yay!), lose massive amounts of money (boooo), and ultimately end up right back in the 9 to 5 (ugh).

You “lose” the guy.

I know that sounds bad, and when it’s happening it feels REALLY bad. But you, my dear, come through it all girl power and independent and ba-dass.

And losing him ultimately isn’t such a huge loss. Sad but true.

BTW – you don’t have to move – I know you’ll worry about that, but it’s ok.

And then a while later, even though you don’t think you need anyone (and you’re right of course) you find someone anyway. Someone who makes you think all that losing wasn’t a loss at all. More of an opportunity for a massive upgrade.

So – I know you think you are going to drift through the next 30 years and you know how it all turns out. But it’s a lot more exciting than you thought.

More downs than you expect right now – but much higher highs than you imagine, too.

Buckle up, buttercup. You’re in for a wild ride.

Lots of love,
Me (You)

*I’m participating in Write Yourself Alive – a 30 day online writing program – I’ll be responding to the daily prompts here. To respect the program I won’t actually say what the prompt is, so bear with me – this could be pretty random :)