This morning, as I busily prepared the newspaper for
publication, I received an email from my past self. Yes. You read that correctly.
It was an email from me of the past to me of the present.
The email began as follows:
Dear Future Me,
It's been a month since you began your journey as
managing editor of The Windham Eagle. So, I (a.k.a. past me), want to check in
to see how things are going.
First of all - and this is really important: Have you
found your equilibrium yet?
What a perfect day, I thought, for that email and
specifically that question to arrive in my inbox. Wednesdays tend to be very
hectic, although very exciting, days as Melissa (layout and ad designer), Gayle
(copy editor) and I work fast and furiously to get the paper, such as the one
you are holding now, completed and sent off to the printers by 5 p.m.
Despite the busyness of the day, I took a moment to pause.
Have I been able to steady that rocking boat I happily jumped into on January 2?
I’m very surprised and happy to say that in a month’s
time, I have found a level of balance that I guessed would take longer.
I’m not saying I have got it all together perfectly and
I’m very aware that I will be forever learning the new ways to row that dinghy
in the big blue sea, but I think I finally found home. I have found a home in a
career that never once crossed my mind as I frantically tried to find that
“perfect” profession during my twenties and thirties (and well, forties too).
Needless to say, I am a late bloomer and it has taken a
while to find my voice, so to speak. But now I wish I could write an email back
to the past me. That me at age 20 or 30 and tell her to hang in there and not
work so hard at “finding herself.” I would definitely tell her to lighten up.
Because, now that I have a moment to pause and look back, I see how that long
and winding road lead me to where I am today. The process - all the experiences
- is what brought me here. And I truly could not be happier. Well, I’d be
pretty happy if my dinghy were a yacht.
*Do you want to receive a letter from your past self?
It’s easy. Go to www.futureme.org and
write your own email.
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