How to write a letter to your future self
A letter to your future self is the one letter certain to reach someone who knows you. You write it today, seal it and forget it — and one day it comes back, carrying a version of you that you had half forgotten.
Why write one
Most of what we feel passes without a record. A diary keeps the facts; a letter keeps the voice. Read months later, it shows you what you were worried about that has since dissolved, what you hoped for that came true, and what you still want.
It is a small, private way of keeping yourself company.
What to write
- What an ordinary day looks like right now: where you live, what you eat, who you talk to most.
- What is on your mind this week: the worry, the plan, the small thing that made you laugh.
- A question for your future self. Did you ever call her back? Is the plant still alive?
- Something you hope will still be true, and something you hope will not.
- A kind word. Future you may need it more than you think.
Write the way you would talk to a friend. It does not need to be wise. The details that feel too small to mention are exactly the ones you will be glad to find.
How to begin, and an example
Begin the way you would begin any letter, with Dear me or your own name, and say where you are as you write. Something like:
Dear me,
It is a Tuesday in autumn and I am writing this at the kitchen table. The radiator ticks. I have just started the new job, and I still do not know where the good coffee is.
Right now I am worried about whether I made the right choice. By the time you read this, you will know. Whatever happened, I hope you went for a walk this morning, and I hope you still call Mum on Sundays.
Write back, in a way: tell me one thing you wish I knew now.
Me, a year ago
How far ahead
A month is long enough to be surprised. Half a year lets a season turn. A year is the classic: it lands at a moment you can compare with, the same week, a different you.
Or pick a day that means something: a birthday, an anniversary, the first day of something new. Five years is the far end; the further away the date, the easier it is to write something vague, so if you are not sure, choose a year.
Sealing it in Dearu
In Dearu a letter to the future goes into the time capsule. Pick a paper and an envelope, write, then choose when it opens: in a month, six months, one, three or five years, or on a day you pick. Until that day it stays sealed.
When the day comes it arrives in your mailbox, and Dearu sends you an email that says so, even if you have letter emails turned off; you asked for this one. Then you get to open it for the first time. Letters to yourself never leave the post office: no one else reads them, and they are not sent to any AI.