Date achieved:
Thursday 6th September 2018 & Monday 1st June 2020
Where?
The first one was on the Young Endeavour somehwere in the Great Barrier Reef and the seond letter was written at home
Why is this experience on the Challenge List?
Its something that in the future I can reflect on a moment in my past with my thoughts, goals and things that are important to me. Plus who doesn’t love getting a letter (even if it is from themselves).
Description:
Whilst on the Young Endeavour everyone was asked to write a letter to their future self as a way to reflect and think about moving forward what goals you have for yourself.
We were asked to find a quiet place on the ship and spend the next 30-45 minutes writing the letter. With a view like this its pretty easy to become relaxed and just keep writing. I spent the entire time writing and I was proud the final letter. I addressed the letter to myself and then handed it to the staffies.
In a way, this letter allows me to keep the experience alive, as the letter was sent to me six months after the voyage ended. It was a great way to basically relive the moment in my own words through a reflection. I have made this an open letter for anyone to read here.
I felt that the experience wasn’t quite completed because I wanted the letter to my future self to be opened later than just six months, so I started writing another one. Now, the one that I wrote on the ship was two pages long and that was what I was expecting for the following letter but I guess once I started I actually had so much to write down that it was nine pages long the final letter!!
I handwrote this letter as well because I feel that through handwriting it it makes it unique and personal to myself. As I was writing the letter in June 2020 to my future self I said that I didn’t want to mention COVID-19 but I realised that I couldn’t not. There were things that needed to be mentioned and for me to reflect on from it as a learning experience.
I actually had so much fun writing this letter as I am not sure where I will be in five years but I wanted it to be a reflection on my past (present… hmmm thats a tricky one) self and what was important to me at the time.
I also created an ‘All about me’ sheet which I filled out and then since I figured that I was storing this information for the five years that I may as well do the same with my siblings so I got them to fill out their own sheets as well.
Inspiration of what to include in a letter to your furture self is under further information.
Would I do it again?
Yep, I have been able to use this as a great tool to reflect on myself in a particular moment of my life. So in saying that I would like to write one of these every five years hopefully to become a tradition of my own.
Highlight:
The best moment with this experience is getting to open that letter because you get to remember that exact moment in your life in detail whilst reading that letter.
When I got my siblings to fill out their ‘All about me’ sheets there were some interesting things that came up that made us all laugh. One being that Nat couldnt think of anything for a new skill to learn so Jessie said “What I don’t want Natty to learn is how walk outside barefoot” and well thats what ended up getting written down. Another one was that Nat couldn’t think of anything for how she can make the world a better place? so Jessie says “By eating carrots” cause Nat cannot stand carrots (its definitely an interesting way to make the world a better place). Then when I asked Jessie What made her unique? she said it is because her “birth stone is amethyst”. This will definitely be something that we all will look forward to reading their answers in the future.
Cost:
The first letter from the Young Endeavour was part of the experience and they sent it to me.
The second letter was free as I used paper and an envelope that I had at home already.
Further information:
I have to say that when I searched for ‘what to include in a letter to your future self?’ I was a little disappointed. Some websites had some bits of information I was able to use but not enough so I decided to make my own list of things to include in the letter. This is what I included::
- My achievements
- Current situation in regards to COVID-19
- Where am I currently in life with work, volunteering, clubs and family etc
- What I have learnt recently with COVID-19
- Current passions
- Five year goals in regards to work, lifestyle changes, goals to achieve and things to strive for and things to learn
- Things to keep in mind from things that I have learnt
- Inspiriational things to remember such as; movies, quotes, TED talks, tv shows, songs, people and books etc
- Poem that I wrote
- Conclusion to sum up the letter
- Last thing that I added was a P.S. that had something funny
As a bonus I created my very own ‘All about me’ sheets (as I couldn’t find one that suited what I needed), to use as a quick reference with short answers, with the following questions:
