I have been writing letters to my future self every year since I was 19. I am now 34. Last month I read them all.

Every year on my birthday I write a letter to myself 15 years in the future. I seal it. I put it in a shoebox under my bed. The shoebox has been with me through four apartments, two cities, one relationship that lasted four years, and one job change. I started at 19 because I read about the practice in a self-help book I bought from a discount bin. The book said: "Write to your future self as if to a close friend. Be honest. Be specific. Tell them what you're afraid of." I have been honest. I have been specific. I have told them what I was afraid of. At 19 I was afraid I would never amount to anything. At 22 I was afraid the relationship would end. At 25 I was afraid it wouldn't. At 28 I was afraid I was becoming someone I didn't recognize. At 31 I was afraid I was too comfortable. At 33 I was afraid comfort was actually fine and I had been wrong to be suspicious of it. Last month I turned 34. I opened the shoebox. There were 15 letters. I read them in order, on my apartment floor, with a glass of whiskey I could not really afford. $3 to read what I found. This one I wrote as carefully as I could. 🙏