Back in November I wrote Replies From My 39yr Old Self after finding a diary that I’d written when I was nineteen. Well, this week, I’ve been inspired by the fabulous Kelly at www.myprojectme.com who turned that notion on its head and wrote to herself in the future. Cool – huh? So, it got me thinking, what would I say to my future self? What do I hope my future self will have achieved?

I’d set the date to 2021. Five years away. I’ll (hopefully) be mid-forties, my husband will have reached and passed the half-century, I’d have a teenage son and a ten-year old, we’ll be living in the house we’re  painstakingly renovating, and my dearest dog will be very elderly and more grey than black. (I’m starting to feel like Marty McFly, here.) Any more than that, who knows? But If I was to write to myself in 2021, here’s a few things I would like to say,

Dear Future-Self,

• Yay -first things first,  if you’re reading this you must be alive and well! ( I bet your fortieth birthday doesn’t seem such a big deal now!)
• I hope my happy little boys have grown into bigger healthy  versions of themselves.
• I hope my boys still give you the fiercest of hugs and fill you up with love just by being them. At least one must be taller than you now – that must be weird! Do you make him sit down when you tell him off?
• I hope you’ve shown them how to love full-throttle and demonstrated how it’s important to be strong on the inside, not just the outside.
• I hope you still look at your husband and feel thankful.
• Maybe, now that you’re a best-selling author, your secretary is reading this?  Seriously, I hope you’ve got a least one book published, and if not, whatever else you may be doing, I hope you’re still writing. Much worse to give up, than to fail. (no matter what, well done btw, I know how bloody hard it was.)
• I hope you’re still practising yoga and have cracked ‘the boat’ by now and have some other fancy balance poses in your repertoire (I know that’s my ego talking and it’s not what it’s about – but it would still be cool and I reckon it could be one sure way to get some respect from your teenage son, so I hope you can.)
• I hope you don’t act your age.
• I hope you embarrass your boys often with lots of ‘Mum dancing’ at home.
• I hope you throw great parties at a moment’s notice in the house that still seems a dream away.
• I hope you’ve acquired more patience.
• I hope you’ve said ‘I love you’ and ‘thank-you’ today.
• I hope you can speak reasonable Spanish by now.
• I hope you went back and did that MA in Creative Writing.
• I hope you make time for the important people in your life.
• I hope you love your wrinkles and yourself.
• I hope you practise kindness everyday.
• I hope you’re happy – a successful best-selling author kind of happy – but happy none the less 😉

Love

Your younger-self.

I hope I’m not tempting fate! I hope I’m not run over by a bus in the morning leaving no future-self to read my hopes and dreams. I don’t like the thought of them hanging in the ether: homeless, empty, unread. But you’ve read them now, so thank you. Feel free to chase me up in April 2021! You can have  ago at www.futureme.org