Year-end Posts, Part II: Dreams for 2016

I write this in the final hour of 2015, when I'm the only one awake in this house and the cicadas are outside keeping me company.
I'm gonna do this in the form of a letter to my future self, and this time next year I'll read it.
Here goes.

Dear future me,
I write this to you in the hope that you'll be a better person than I. In the hope that you'll take each of the 366 days you are allotted and make something of them.

I'll be honest with you. 2015, I fucked up. I did some stupid shit. And you, in 2016, will probably also fuck up, and do even stupider shit. Which is fine. We live and we learn.

I dream of 2016 as a blank canvas. It's up to you to decide what type of artwork, what quality artwork, you will imprint on it. We mightn't be the greatest with pictures, but we can help ourselves with words.
I hope we can use our words to impact someone's life, if even minutely, this year.

Don't make the same mistakes I did. Make different ones. Listen to the people who genuinely care about you. Learn from other people's errors. A smart man learns from his own mistakes, but a wise man learns from those of others. Be wiser than I was.

I may have said this before in another way, but I'll say it again. 2015 wasn't lit until I decided to make it so. Make 2016 lit. In whatever way you feel comfortable.

Now. You'll be 18 for most of the year. Remember what happened to the birth giver at that age. DO NOT LET THAT REACH YOU. EVER. We too young for that.

Understand that people you came into 2016 with might not be the same persons you leave it with. Please just be OK with that. You will leave behind, and you will be left behind.

Most of all, my darling future me, upon whom all my dreams and hopes for this coming year lie, have fun. Loosen up a bit. Laugh more. Spend time with people who make you laugh. Stay out of this rut I was digging myself into.

It's your chance to shine now, and remember, I love who I hope you'll be.

-

Standing at the gate of the year, on the cusp of what I hope will be a good one, not just for me, but for all of you who have stuck with me the past nearly 2 years. I'm so excited.

It's 366 days, not to fix my mistakes, but to show what I've learned from them. Possibly make new ones and learn from those too. Meet new people, have new experiences.

Tonight is not a night for melancholic Reflections and downhearted musings. Tonight, goddammit, I will be happy.

-me.