I received an interesting piece of mail yesterday evening, a piece of mail I had completely forgotten. What first caught my interest was the return address. It was from Miss Thornton or rather Mrs. Zeismer. I wondered what her reason would be for sending a letter after this many years. I thought that if she was sending a Christmas card/letter that it was odd for her to start after three years of nothing.
What I found inside the envelope was not a letter from her but a letter from myself to myself. I know that sounds strange but once I saw the letter inside everything came back to me piece by piece.
I looked back at the front of the envelope and realized why I’d recognized the handwriting. It was my own. I remembered writing the letter all those years ago in journalism class. The funny thing is that even as I sit here and look back on it I don’t remember the exact details surrounding the assignment but I vaguely remember the act.
I found one part of the letter extremely amusing... the part where I hoped that Caleb and Elena would stay together because they were perfect for each other but I still thought that Caleb was annoying. Well, four years have passed. Caleb turned out to be a jerk, dumped Elena, married another girl who is now expecting their first child. Interesting how things change over the years?
It is also interesting how things don’t change over the years. Four years ago I hoped that I would have a significant other and be able to marry soon after I finished college. You know where I stand on that. I also still had much the same writing/journaling style. I can look at that letter and see where I’ve improved and yet where I’m still the same.
I admire Miss Thornton (she married after I last saw her) for remembering to mail those letters four years later. It certainly has been a thought provoking time loop for me and most likely for the others in the class who received their letters.
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I got my letter the other day and I had mixed feelings. Like you said, I don't remember the actual assignment or circumstances surrounding the thing, but I wrote mine as a series of resolutions, of sorts. "In four years, I will have..." and so on. And so much of it never came true - I thought I knew what was going to happen, what I was going to major in, what my interests would be. And I was wrong on most of it. So it was interesting in the sense that it reminded me that we can't know the future and the sheer amount of change we undergo as the years pass, but it was also kind of sad. I got a letter from myself, but not really - I got a letter from someone else. Someone I used to be. I'm not that someone anymore. And that's the part that I'm finding more difficult to deal with - I know I've changed, and for the better (in most cases), but there was something strangely shameful about it, as if I'd let my former self down by becoming something other than what I thought I wanted. It's strange, and more than slightly ridiculous.
I am glad she sent the letters, though. Miss Thornton was one of my favorite teachers at the Academy. :)
Yeah. I wondered if you got your letter as well.
She was one of my favorite teachers as well... and she took my senior portraits... talented woman.
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