Letter to My Future Self

Dear Future Me,

First of all, I hope you’re still drinking iced americano. If you’ve given it up, don’t tell me. There are some heartbreaks I’m just not ready for.

Remember that thing we used to worry about? Yes, that thing. I hope you’ve realized by now that it wasn’t such a big deal. If you haven’t, well, that’s okay too. We always had a talent for making small problems feel like unsolvable puzzles. Life wouldn’t be as interesting otherwise, would it?

By now, I hope you’ve made peace with most of the things. I still remember waking up at 4 AM, trying to pretend we enjoyed running. I hope you’re still at it — or at least remembering it fondly from a safe, comfortable distance.

Speaking of early mornings, how’s The Wild Wolf doing? Are we still training people about resilience? Have we become a million-dollar company yet? Are Mridu & Ira still around? If you’re still running The Zen Space, I hope you’ve done some work I can boast about. Are we still maintaining the plants outside the home; the kind that Duggu would have chosen? She always had better taste than us, didn’t she?

Though I would like to know that Duggu is with us but if not then Duggu wherever you are now, I hope the memories bring more smiles than sadness. I hope you’ve found peace, and maybe even learned how to let go without entirely forgetting. People don’t leave entirely, do they? They linger quietly, showing up unexpectedly in songs and moments of quiet.

How is the stranger from the café? In case we are not in touch, that’s fine too. Maybe some stories are meant to stay unfinished. But if we are, I hope it was worth it. Either way, I’m glad I met her.

I wonder if you finally got around to reading those classics everyone pretends they’ve read. If you haven’t, let me remind you: nobody actually enjoys “War and Peace.” It’s okay. Stick to your slightly embarrassing collection of self-help books. Embrace it. There’s bravery in honesty.

I genuinely hope you still laugh at inappropriate moments and still apologize too much for things you shouldn’t. And I hope you still hold the doors for others. These quirks were always what made you a gentleman. And if someone ever convinced you otherwise, I sincerely hope you’ve politely removed them from your circle of trust.

But mostly, Future Me, I hope you’re proud of us. We’ve been messy, confused, hopeful, occasionally brilliant, and frequently ridiculous. But we’ve always tried. Remember that you once thought every small setback was the end of the world, yet here you are — probably chuckling about it from your cozy armchair.

So keep going. Keep stumbling. Keep picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, and walking forward with a stubborn grin. And if you ever doubt yourself, remember that I believed in you first.

With all the love and patience you sometimes forget to give yourself.

Yours Truly,

Present Me

Day 70/100

Pauls, Gurgaon

~ A

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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