Future. ~ Written on Sept 12/20

// Wrote this for a contest with the prompt: “Me. Ten years from now” //

I think I’m finally getting my fair share of the luck the universe owes me because guess who I was talking to just the other day? 27 year old future me! This might be the time to slap my knee, and yell “Just kidding!”. But for once in my life, I’m being completely serious. 

I’m not sure how a future version of myself managed to come here. Maybe she built a time machine. Maybe they discovered magic was real. Or maybe it’s a concept that the present humanity hasn’t yet imagined. She wouldn’t tell me how she time travelled. And I don’t want to know anyway. Let the future keep her secrets. Life is better when it’s unexpected.

I hope you haven’t labelled me as delusional and moved on. I hope you aren’t shaking your head and telling the person sitting next to you about how this girl has clearly lost her mind. I hope you believe me when I say that I had a nice talk with the person I am going to be 10 years from now. 

And because of that, I think I’m more ready to face the world. She didn’t give much advice. I’ve never been good at that. And she didn’t talk much about how life looks like in the future either. Not even whether we’ve colonized Mars or the Moon. And I guess, there has been enough time travel movies that warn us about how the smallest of things can set off a chain reaction. And I do not want the apocalypse to be my sole responsibility.

But she did give me hope. She told me that they have finally perfected the recipe for chocolate flavoured bubblegum. That’s enough to make me look forward to the future. And she also looked happy. That’s all we want, isn’t it? To be happy? At least, that’s all I want to be.

Ten years from now, I want the same awe and love I have for life entangled in my soul. I never want to forget that every breath I take is a miracle. I hope I remember to be kind and let my experience over the next decade shape me into a better human. 

I wish that when I’m 27, I’ll never have any regrets about the past. But, I don’t think it’s possible to live a life with no regrets. We will always make mistakes and learn from them. So, I just want to be a person who tried her best and stood back up when reality pushed her down. 

I really want to say that ten years from now, I should have accomplished great things. Nevertheless, I’ll be satisfied even if I don’t. I just want to become a person that 17 year old me will look up to.

And in case you’re still wondering, I shall never tell you if I really did see a future version of myself. That will be my very own secret to carry.