How to use these
Address the page to a specific person: you, at a specific age. Say when you want it read, and then say the true thing.
Where you are writing from
The part that dates fastest and is worth the most later. Detail beats significance every time.
- What does an ordinary day look like for you right now?
- Who matters most to you right now, and what are they like?
- What is the best thing about your life as it is today?
- What are you proud of that nobody else knows about?
- What does your home look like right now, room by room?
- What is the song, book, or show you would be a little embarrassed to admit is on repeat?
- What does this year cost, in plain numbers, and how does that feel?
- Who would you call first with good news today?
What you are carrying
The half that gets left out of letters, which is exactly why the letter is worth writing. Nobody else reads this.
- What are you worried about this year, and how likely does it feel?
- What are you deciding at the moment, and what are the real options?
- What are you afraid you will forget?
- What would you like to be forgiven for by then?
- What are you pretending is fine?
- What have you been putting off long enough that it has become a fact about you?
- What has hurt this year that you have not told anybody?
- What are you hoping for so much that you will not say it plainly?
To the person reading this
Write these last and address them directly. They are the lines a later you will actually stop on.
- What do you want to be different by the time you read this?
- What advice would you give yourself, knowing you probably will not take it?
- What do you hope has not changed?
- What would you want to be reminded of on a hard day?
- What should they forgive you for, if it did not work out?
- What would you like them to still be doing every week?
- What would you ask them, if a letter could go the other way?
- What are you certain about today that they may have to correct?