The Letter I Wrote to Myself Five Years Ago

Yesterday I got an email that I almost didn't recognize. The subject line read: "A letter from the past." And then it hit me — I wrote this. Five years ago.

It was 2021. A completely different life. A different job, a different city, different friends.

What it said

The letter was pretty short — just a few paragraphs. I wrote about what was weighing on me at the time. Work problems I can barely remember now. A love story that ended badly. And a few hopes — things I was planning to do with my future.

What's interesting is that some of those hopes came true, and some didn't. But even the ones that did turned out nothing like I'd imagined.

How it made me feel

My first reaction? A little awkward. Reading your past self is a bit like looking at old photos — there's always that cringe moment.

But then something else came through — warmth. Because that version of me, with all those problems and worries, still thought about the future. Still thought about me — the me of today.

What I was telling myself

At the end of the letter, I had written: "I hope you're doing okay. I hope you're still laughing."

And I thought — yeah, I'm doing okay. And yeah, I'm still laughing. Just for completely different reasons than I expected back then.

Maybe that's exactly what these letters are for — not to predict the future, but to stay connected to the past. To remember: it wasn't always like this, and it won't always be like this. And that's perfectly okay.