A Letter from the Past

On the last day of grade nine (June 20, 2000), my very excellent English teacher Ms. Mackenzie had us all write a letter to ourselves that she would send us in ten years.  I got my letter recently (a year late, not mentioning that as an annoyance but to clarify for anyone who reads this and is like "but it's 2011!!!  Good job on the MATH DEGREE, NOT") and thought I would share some advice and questions from my 15 year old self.

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Dear Robyn,

Hi.  How are you?  I am fine.  I am now at the end of grade 9, the last day of classes.  I am not extremely happy, because I was just starting to get into it and now it’s done, so I’ll have to start all over again next year because grade 10 will be different.

So, do I still have the same handwriting?  Am I rich and famous?  What’s going on?  Where am I living?  Am i even living?  Have I published that book yet?  If I haven’t, DO IT NOW!  You probably have a computer, right?  Type it up!  Get moving.

So what are the slang expressions?  Now they are stuff like, “cool,” and “sweet.”  Really stupid.  The only one I say is cool, because it’s the only word that’s cool.

What was the canoe trip like?  Was it fun?  Will I always remember it?

Who of these people in my class do I still know?  [Names removed haha] (that was our seating arrangement).

Sincerely,

Robyn, Age 15, 2000

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Dear 15 Year Old Robyn,

So to answer your questions, my handwriting is pretty similar.  It still looks a bit teenagery but I think it has gotten slightly more grownup, though a handwriting analyzer would probably guess I was a teen.  No, I am not rich and famous in the sense you were asking about.  I am not a movie star or a bestselling author because I know that's what you were implying, but I'm probably making more money than I should be only a year out of school and as for the famous part, just type "wisdom teeth change face shape" into Google Images... so sort of rich and famous.  Just not what you imagined.  I'm living in Saskatoon and no, I have not published a book.  But at least I'm trying to write more often by having this blog.  And the book you're probably thinking of, where I publish all of my private journals filled with not-very-juicy teen angst, is NEVER going to happen. 

I think slang is pretty much the same actually...

And the canoe trip WAS awesome.  Definitely one of my favourite memories from high school.  I think I will always remember it and I'm glad you decided to go on it.

I'm still a little bit in touch with a couple of the people you mentioned, but not close.  Which is totally okay, since I've made a lot of amazing friends since I finished high school.  I definitely didn't marry whichever boy it was you had a crush on in that class, which is probably what you were implying by that question, but I'm going to marry someone a lot better.  You will have to wait about 6 more years to meet him, but it'll be worth it, I promise.

Sincerely,

Robyn, Age 26, 2011