Writer's statement: I named my piece this because it’s simple and to the point. My piece connects to the pandemic because I’ve been spending my time in the pandemic setting goals for myself and really thinking about my future, specifically what I’m going to do in terms of higher education. I chose to submit this type of response because, in the future, I want to compare my accomplishments with my goals and see if there are any goals I didn’t meet and attempt to meet them. My inspiration was a lot of television shows I’ve seen where they’ve done episodes like this, as well as Mrs. Kurtz. I hope that my audience will understand that your future can be scary and that that’s okay, and that it’s okay to not make your goals all the time, but set them anyway and you might accomplish them.

Dear Future Self,

I’m not even going to pretend that I have any idea what you’re going to do. So far, right now, on May 18th, 2o2o, you believe that you’re going to go to college, major in biology and minor in computer science, graduate, then move to another country, preferably one with free healthcare. These are, to say the least, major goals and pretty open-ended in general. And they’re terrifying and the same plans you’ve had for literal years, so they probably will change.

Obviously, dreams change. Be that they change from becoming a veterinarian for pets to a vet in a zoo, or drastic career and lifestyle changes at the age of 40, they change. I know for a fact that right now you’re a creature of habit, and you hate change, but you have to get used to it eventually. It’s okay for them to change and it’s not a huge deal, even if it seems like it during that time period. It’s not the end of the world, and it’s part of the reason why I’ve set open-ended goals for you, to allow for changes.

That being said, I want you to at least do some form of higher education. This may be extremely difficult for any number of reasons, but anything is better than nothing. That is one goal I expect to have you achieve because I believe it’s important and it’ll allow you to have a better career even if your dream changes. I also want you to keep learning because there are just so many things to learn and there frankly isn’t enough time. Even if it’s something that you think is frivolous and fun, it’s worth learning. Nothing is worth dismissal.

Another thing people didn’t really tell you at all was that dreams can change even when you’re past high school. A lot of the time people would just say that high school is the only time you can change your mind in terms of your future career or education but that simply isn’t true. Sure, it costs more money, and while I wouldn’t be in debt, I wouldn’t want to wake up every morning hating my life because I focused my life on a dead dream. I see my parents’ point too, because to them they had to stick to one thing and make a career out of it, and they didn’t have the money for a drastic career change. So I get it. It’s just a bit terrifying.

Everything is scary. Writing this is scary because I know that someone besides me may read this. Living through this pandemic is scary because who knows who’ll survive or not. Dreams and goals are scary because change is scary and not achieving those goals is scary. But you have a support system because your parents are more understanding than most. You have goals that are outlined here. I’m not going to set unreasonable goals. Higher education is one, if not that then a stable income. Don’t get married if you don’t want to, but be happy. Have good friends, get rid of the ones you’ve grown apart from. You’re way too good for a toxic relationship, romantic or platonic. You don’t need to fit society’s standards for a perfect family or woman or whatever. If you want kids, have them. If you want dogs, get them. Other peoples’ opinions shouldn’t matter that much to you. Most importantly, love yourself and what you’re doing.

Love,

15-year-old, 9th grade Trisha