The Time Traveller
21 years ago, in February 1987, I wrote a letter to my future self. It detailed the people in my class, the subjects we took, my interests, films out at the time, drinks I could think of, sports and games, comics, countries and the latest news about Terry Waite.
10 years later my future self opened that letter, looked at what a strange, immature, unintelligent and scruffy boy my original self had been, and vowed to improve on his work. He decided to write a letter to my future future self, including in it the letter from my original self.
Mainly over the summer of 1997, my future self wrote long and detailed notes on what modules he was doing in his classics degree at university, what A-Levels he had done, which other people were doing his course at university, what teachers and tutors he had had at school and university, what the latest results were at Wimbledon, what the score was in the one-day match between Durham and Kent at Feethams, what the Oxford United squad at the time was, and the fact that he had voluntarily gone to watch 'Fierce Creatures' at the cinema, amongst other things. Unremarkable confessions from my future self were that he liked football and cricket, and liked an occasional curry. More remarkable were the startling revelations that he wasn't too fond of bitter, and never drank tea. My future self proved himself to be rather lazy by taking over a year to finalise the letter and put it in an envelope, finally completing his work in June 1998.
One day earlier this week my future future self realised that it must have been over 10 years since my future self had completed his letter, so he searched for the said letter, safely tucked away in a 'safe place', which meant he couldn't find it anywhere for a few days. He opened the letter earlier this very day, and had the excitement of being amazed again at the work of my original self back in 1987, and checking out for the first time the work of my future self back in 1997 and 1998. My future future self was not too surprised on reading the letter that my future self didn't have a girlfriend. What a loser!
So now my future future self is trying to decide if he'll have any time to write a letter to my future future future self to let him know what an intelligent, witty, smart and generally amazing person he is.
10 years later my future self opened that letter, looked at what a strange, immature, unintelligent and scruffy boy my original self had been, and vowed to improve on his work. He decided to write a letter to my future future self, including in it the letter from my original self.
Mainly over the summer of 1997, my future self wrote long and detailed notes on what modules he was doing in his classics degree at university, what A-Levels he had done, which other people were doing his course at university, what teachers and tutors he had had at school and university, what the latest results were at Wimbledon, what the score was in the one-day match between Durham and Kent at Feethams, what the Oxford United squad at the time was, and the fact that he had voluntarily gone to watch 'Fierce Creatures' at the cinema, amongst other things. Unremarkable confessions from my future self were that he liked football and cricket, and liked an occasional curry. More remarkable were the startling revelations that he wasn't too fond of bitter, and never drank tea. My future self proved himself to be rather lazy by taking over a year to finalise the letter and put it in an envelope, finally completing his work in June 1998.
One day earlier this week my future future self realised that it must have been over 10 years since my future self had completed his letter, so he searched for the said letter, safely tucked away in a 'safe place', which meant he couldn't find it anywhere for a few days. He opened the letter earlier this very day, and had the excitement of being amazed again at the work of my original self back in 1987, and checking out for the first time the work of my future self back in 1997 and 1998. My future future self was not too surprised on reading the letter that my future self didn't have a girlfriend. What a loser!
So now my future future self is trying to decide if he'll have any time to write a letter to my future future future self to let him know what an intelligent, witty, smart and generally amazing person he is.
posted by Gaz man at 10:11 pm
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