Dear Future Me,
That light at the end of the tunnel, that bright flicker of flame that never goes out, I find myself bound to you, a secret promise inside that I will never let you burn out. Dear future me… I hear you calling me in my dreams, I hear the distant whispers of a film reel concealed tight in a dark room. The flicker of flame now the story I laboured over projecting a patchwork of distant visions before my eyes. The flame dancing and flittering across the screen, beheld by the eyes of a dreamer rattles around in my head, reminding me of my most valued and guarded treasure, my memories. For they are the thing I cherish most and hold dear to my heart held down under lock and key. Dear Future Me…please never let them fade away. Write them down if you must, hand shaky with age letting the words fall all over your alabaster paper, the black ink becoming fragile faces of your past looking back at you. Dear Future Me… I see a world where you wake up to the sounds of birds and children playing in the streets, instead of the threat of war breathing down your neck, playing on the morning radio. I see a world where your children can walk through meandering paths into thickets of trees expanding for miles into the horizon, just l like the sea. Dear Future Me… Never give up when things get hard, no matter how many times you fall, how many times life with push you down, always, always stand up and brush yourself off. Always see that light at the end of the tunnel, keep your eyes locked on that dancing flame. Dear Future Me… I can see you now, living in your brand-new apartment fuelled on the ecstasy of dreams looking out over the city. The bright lights of New York are swimming under the night sky like a starry sea. Dear Future Me… I hope you made it; I hope all your hard work paid off; I hope you finally wrote those stories swirling in your head, that distant whine of the film reel now projecting them onto the biggest screen to hungry and curious eyes. Dear future me… save me a seat, I can’t wait to meet you.
– Riverside Grade 12 student who dreams of making it big in the film industry.
Dear Future Me,
From the moment your little hands grasped the most colourful crayon in your brand-new set, ripping the box open to reveal the rich vividness that lies inside, you knew you had the world in your hands. From colourful scribbles pressed into the blanched paper to beautiful portraits carved and crafted onto the canvas with smooth oil hues. Dear Future Me…Remember when you used to stay up late at night pouring over storybooks about brave princesses and fearless warriors, eyes wide with wonder curled up under your blankets, flashlight in hand illuminating your makeshift world, don’t forget about that magic. Dear Future Me… Never stop being a dreamer. Hold close the secret vow you made tight in your heart when the world seemed so big and you felt so small. Remember your curious fairies, and lovelorn maidens, your secret sirens, and ancient swords, because… Fairytales are not just meant for children. Dear Future Me… can you hear it? The soft whisper of the wind blowing through young emerald forests rebirthed after years of desolation, the light trickle of your waters flowing clean into the brook. Can you feel it? The warm sun kissing your skin that burns bright within you and never seems to burn out. Dear Future Me…. Did you make it? Standing on the front porch of your small but comfortable home residing in that lovely neighbourhood where the streetlamps waste away like a dying ember beckoning your children home. Are you still painting the places that come to you in your dreams like fleeting glimpses of magic? Are you still living in your beautiful romanticized world that is no longer considered cruel like it once was so long ago? Dear Future Me… a world of magic and wonder lies before us now. Everyday with steady breath and curious mind I take one more step toward you, towards our future, towards us. Dear future me… I can’t wait to meet you.
– Riverside Grade 12 student preparing to become an aspiring artist.
Dear Future Me,
Your steady eyes glance through the crystalline lens of your magnifying glass, enlarging the hidden world that lies near the ground, untouched by the naked eye. Curious as you always have been about the smaller things that people tend to overlook. There was always something about the patchwork of history that was embroidered into every plant, every tree, every living thing that was akin to the making of a great tapestry weaving together undiscovered tales of old. From a young age, you never knew your set path, felt always be a destined wanderer, but somewhere deep down in your heart you knew there was something about the science of life that pulled you in, feeding your ever-curious mind. Dear Future Me… I hope that you will still be able to study your great trees and forest floors that smell no more like the tangy char of wood, or be able to hear the distant whirring of a chainsaw ready to splice apart a world foreign to most who dare not look for it. Dear Future Me…. You can save it, one tree at a time-pressed into the warm soil grows a new hope for your world. A world where forests aren’t cut down to fuel our growing fires, a world where people take climate change seriously instead of worrying about their “changing” appearances. A world where your children can fantasize about the great looming oaks and rolling hills instead of worrying about the devilish sneer of war waiting around the corner. Dear Future Me… I hope you live a life of absolute splendor and no regrets, I hope you learned to triumph and overcome, to dare make those seemingly, oh so impossible, dreams a reality. Because even one person, just like yourself, can change the course of the future. Dear Future Me…. I won’t see you for a long while yet, but when the time comes… I can’t wait to meet you.
– Riverside Grade 12 Student who wants to become a biologist and rattle the stars.
