Have you ever wondered about meeting the past or future version of you face to face? Meeting that 10 year old missing two teeth you who can be seen in the old family photos or that 50 year old you yet to be seen in the near future. What would you do? What would you say? Would you be bewildered and call it witchcraft or get excited and nosebleed to death? Okay maybe too much. Would you run and hide, maybe faint? Run up to them and embrace them? But first reactions aside and all is settled down and not panicky, what kind of conversation would you have with them, what would you talk about?
Pretty sure we would all have quite a lot of questions to ask the future version of us. How does the future look like? Is technology as the great animators and producers envisioned it in Hollywood? Are you rich, married and have a family? If yes, how many kids? What crappy or awesome names did you give them? What is the Mrs. like? Is she pretty? And if no, why aren’t you married yet? And bam!! They pull a “you’re no longer a heterosexual/gay in the future” and go like “You just got served!” That would be some real mind fuckery right?! These are some of the questions I assume anyone would ask to name a few. Would you be scared to find out how your future turned out? To know your fate or completely disregard the mysteriousness life has to offer and find out just there and then. This would be a conundrum to many if not all of us. Though I would like to take a pretty wild assumption that with one gazing into our future’s eyes and face….we can probably tell how their journey has been. The long roads they’ve walked and the shortcuts they’ve taken. How fulfilling or disappointing it has turned out.
How about the little child you? Brimming with energy and excited about everyday experiences! Who even though sometimes may end up falling down, will always get up, wipe the tears and continue. The little you who doesn’t need a reason to smile or be happy but be rather amused by seeing a silly sight. I would like to think this will probably be the most strange of the two meetings. With the little you having a lot of questions and you not having all the right answers or explanations. I once had a child ask me why men have nipples! I had slept through that biology class so you can take a wild guess the kind of nonsense I was spewing out. Good thing children are easily distracted with candy. However what if they asked questions of a really complicated personal past. Like about how you and your first best friend were doing in your grown up life? Is life more fun and if you made good of the promises you made to each other? But you remember you aren’t friends anymore. What if they ask how the family’s doing but you had a fallout or just stopped keeping in touch? How would we explain such events to the little mind of someone who’s so hopeful, eager for life and always willing to give or take second chances to any circumstance that didn’t turn out so good? Someone who wouldn’t understand the it’s part of growing up excuse, which may be true, but which we may overuse to console ourselves of some of the terrible things happening in our lives.
Such scenarios are mind boggling and a little nerve wrecking since we won’t have all the answers. Would the future you be proud of some the choices you’re making right now or are going to make along the way or be baffled? Would the young you be happy with the decisions you’ve made up to the point you are in your life right now or be saddened and disappointed by them? But there is some good news to this. The past is in the past. And we aren’t defined by our past but rather the decisions we make presently. The other good news is that tomorrow is first day of the rest of your life. You have a chance to make right some wrongs and make best of what you can.
My parting gift to you…..The future you is looking at you right now through your memories. Its creepy I know but the deep realization to its truth outweighs the creepiness right?
AndyTrails 