So a week or so ago I found an old blog entry that was addressed to a 22-year-old me.
Strange, right?
Well, I thought so too until I remembered past me hadn't considered that me now would have any other phone other than my old iPhone... Well done past me, you jackass!
So I thought since it's been delayed by a few months, that I'd finally give you that long-awaited response to your letter.
But if bits don't sound great then bare with me. John's currently playing a loud game in the background and it may interfere with my concentration.
Oh, yeah, John is now your partner. You first met him when you were 19. You both helped move Jess in and he was the one standing in their living room doorway talking about a screwdriver.
That's right, the one with the nice butt.
Right, let's get into this.
Letter from 2015
Dear twenty-two-year-old Ashleigh.
It's currently 10:25pm Wednesday, the 15th of July 2015. I'm currently knackered thanks to you not wanting to go to bed until you get the majority of the things on your to-do list tick. You organized bugger.
Right now you're twenty, going into the third year at Edge Hill University in a few months. You're also the social media manager for Under the Fable, and yesterday we found out that we'll be calling the West Yorkshire Playhouse our office for a few weeks in August. I hope you have great memories of each.
I'm currently single and have been for a while, but I won't go into much detail because you know all about that. Sorry for the upcoming cringes of memories. If that's changed, then great. Don't settle. You deserve to be happy, and we are happy in the future.
Right now I am living with mum and dad for the summer before going back to uni. I'll be on campus next year and I'm looking forward to the daily showers. We love our showers.
Enough about me, I want to know more about future me. :)
How's life? How are you doing?
You should be out of university for nearly a year now, what was graduation like? Hope we did well. How's life outside of university?
Where do you work? Hopefully, you're in a nice job, not expecting you to work at a publishing house or a theatre just yet, though it'd be nice if you were. As long as you're working, right now that's all that matter. Sometimes we have to work the small jobs till we get to where we want to be.
Where are you living? Further up north I hope?
Are you happy, with work, with people, are you happy with who you are? I know you hate being asked questions but this was your idea.
I've set an alarm on your iPhone for the 15th of June 2017, so hopefully, I'll be able to remind you that you need to answer these questions. I hoped you are ok future me, and I hope we have finally gone to Amsterdam.
Goodbye.
My Response
It's been a while since we last talk, right?
It's currently 10:47pm on the 4th of December 2017. I'm late, I know and I'm not sorry.
You're currently awake because you are and you won't be up for much longer. We're hardly the night owl we use to be.
I'm 22-years-old and I've been a graduate of Edge Hill University for a year now. Well done, we did it!
I remember the residency at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, it was an awful lot of fun and you met some really great people too. I hope you'll be able to do that or something similar in the future.
We have a lot of great memories of university and the residency. It's something I know I'm very grateful for.
Graduation was good. I just wish I wasn't so stressed about it and other things didn't happen. It was just a massive rush and I regret wasting that moment.
No, I don't work in a publishing house or a theatre, though that would still be pretty awesome.
But you'll be glad to know I'm not working any old job.
I'm lucky enough to be a content writer for Backland Media, which has a number of Facebook pages. But the page I write for is Aunty Acid. It has 11 million followers. Impressive, right?
It took a lot of work to get here. We really did work our butt off and I'm proud of us for doing it.
You're worried about fitting in the office. Everything's fine, but you've gone from a home office environment to an office and that change can sometimes make you feel alien and different. But, thankfully you work with some very nice people you'd actually like to hang with outside of work. You just need to say something and actually not be super nervous about it.
I am (just) living further up north. I live with John, he's your fiance.
Yes, you're not single anymore. Though it was quite nice being single for a year. You learned a lot about yourself.
Don't get me wrong, you learned that you're broken, kind of bitter, and so on... We still are, but we're a bit better at coping with it.
True, there are some very bad days that make you feel like you want a black hole to swallow you up but you're incredibly brave. Fighting those little battles in your head is important and you're getting a bit better at it. Well done.
Am I happy? Truthfully? Yes. As happy as I can be at the moment, and I know with some work it'll get better but right now, I'm happy with what I have.
 |
| At least John tried... |
Right, I think that's enough talking to myself for one day.
Sleep well 20-year-old me.
xxx
