Have you ever written a letter to your future self? Have you ever read one you wrote to yourself 5, 10, maybe 15 years ago? Did you also think to yourself, “What is the best way to make your future self feel bad about themselves? What’s the point of these capsules? Do you think you are going to be the person you wanted to be years ago?”
No one told me aspirations change with time. So what made fifth grade Tarik think he still wanted to be a musician, scientist, or a musician-scientist? I guess me being the Editor of this newspaper kinda fulfills my old desire to be a big-time editor of a magazine like Wired, or Fast Company, but my career aspirations as of now are SO not that. I would have never imagined myself as a Software Engineer, or pursuing engineering in general. As a child, I always felt I had more to offer on a creative level, rather than a technical level. I played the drums religiously, so back then I probably hoped I would still be pursuing that as a career. I’m sure my parents would have totally appreciated that. Who do we want to become as we get older? What makes those things change? I think it directly correlates to our constant indecisiveness about everything and the fact that our interests can change on a whim.
It’s amazing to sit back and think about what you expected to be like at an older age. I always had this image of who I would be, and what I would look like that it almost feels like I am disappointing my younger self by not being both seven feet tall and crazy good at singing. Only crazy good at singing.
Just as we change as people every day, our aspirations and hopes change as well. I feel this lack of security because nothing is absolute. But that also means anything can and will happen.
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