Dear Kenna...

In 8th grade my English teacher gave me my favorite writing assignment to date.  During the first week of school she gave us a list of questions and had us write a letter to ourselves.

The questions ranged from What are you wearing right now? to Who are you interested in right now?

She then held on to our letters for the entire year and gave them back on the last day of class.  It was quite entertaining sitting there reading our letters and listening to people yell out some of the funny things they had written to themselves.

I've kept this tradition up for the past seven or so years, except now I write the letter in January and open it on December 31st as a way of bringing in the new year.

Well, I would open it on December 31st, except I always forget about it.

Which is why today I had the happy surprise of finding and reading a letter from myself.

Every time I read one of my letters I'm reminded of the day in 8th grade as we sat around laughing at how hilarious we found ourselves after a year of growing up.  And seven years later I'm happy to say that I still find my one-year-ago self hilarious.

Today I also got to write myself my new letter.  And just as every year before I thought, "My goodness, this is boring.  I'm going to read this letter in a year and think, well that was a waste of time."  But I'm pretty sure that when I actually read this letter in a year I will laugh at most of the things I wrote.

I think everyone should write themselves a letter.  Better yet, write yourself a letter, seal it up in an envelope, and then decorate the envelope with pictures of where you think you'll be in a year and the date you can open it.  It adds to the excitement and anticipation.

Just to convince you of what a great idea this is, I'd like to share some quotes from my previous letters.  Also, I think I'm hilarious and I like to share my hilariousness with others.

First of all, I always seem to be making bets with myself in my letters.  I still haven't worked out how to make the loser pay up, so the bets are pointless, but they are usually entertaining.

Quote: "My classes are awesome, my teachers are awesome, my schedule is awesome."

This quote came from two semesters ago, and I can tell you that by the end of that semester, nothing was awesome.  I don't have any idea what drugs I was on when I wrote that, but I was clearly on something.

Quote: "What’s going to happen when you have to take 400 level classes?  And even worse the Honors 5000 word thesis about MATH?  Like what are you going to research?  How people invented Calculus?"

Now this sounds more like me.  Unfortunately, even two years later I don't have an answer to this.  But I did find out how people invented calculus in my Math History class, so I guess that is out as a thesis topic.  Dang it.

Quote: "First off, of course, is Europe.  How was it??....I hope you have the chance to go back someday, because I would really like to visit Rome."

Well that was fast.

Quote: "But anyway, spend a little while reminiscing on Europe. . . . . . . . . . . . . "

Yep, that really happened.  I gave myself some time in my letter to remember my vacation to Europe. That I hadn't even been on yet.  I'm so thoughtful.

Quote: "You should work on that and come back in a year prepared to discuss how you’ve been doing."

Unfortunately, I completely forgot I was supposed to be working on something. Consequently, I was not prepared to discuss.

Quote: "How did that work out for me?  Yeah, it sounded like a lot of work as I was writing it, so I totally understand if you don’t/didn’t put that much effort into it."

I didn't.

Quote: "Yep, that is totally coming back to haunt me."

It did.

But mostly, I like to fill my letter with inspirational quotes.  And looking back a year later, they really do make me feel inspired.

Quote: "The best year of your life is the one you are living now :)"

So I'd like to end this with a thank you to all the past-Kenna's who wrote letters to their future selves and provided me with entertainment and inspiration.  Thank you past-Kenna's, you're an inspiration to all of us.

And by all of us, I mean myself and the future-Kenna's who will be reading these letters for years to come.

And I mean that in the least multiple-personality-disorder way possible.

If anyone else wants to write themselves a letter for the coming year -- and I highly recommend it -- here's the list of questions (as best as I can remember them) from my 8th grade teacher.

1. What are you wearing right now?

2. How have you enjoyed this first week of school? (Or this first month of the year... or something.)

3. Currently, what is your favorite song, band/singer, TV show, movie, actor/actress, food, class, person to hang out with, free time activity.

4. Who are you interested in right now?

5. Who do you want to get to know better?

6. What class are you most excited about?  Least excited about?

7. Name the best thing that has happened to you most recently.

8. Name the worst thing that has happened to you most recently.

9. What do you spend most of your time thinking about?

10. List three goals you wish to accomplish by the end of the year.