Letters from the Young #2

"I am getting a couple of people to write letters to their older selves. I recently read Gabrielle Union's letter to her younger self in Essence and thought that there might be value in writing something to our older selves. While we learn a lot with age, some things get lost as well - ie. spontaneity, love, empathy, persistence, etc (from what I've seen... :)). So perhaps you can add your writing to this - something you cherish now that you don't want to lose sight of as you get older or something you had/knew when you were younger and want to incorporate back into your life."

 Stay the Course

(To be Opened 03/13/XXXX)
Soundtrack: Is that all there Is?
(Whichever cover suits you out of the ones available at your respective points in time)
Lukewarm feelings for your umpteenth anniversary of existence. Another year older, another year out of the way… as they, no- wait, I say.
"Tu Fui, Ego Eris," as the artfully morphologically mutilated latin adage recycled from several video games past goes. I should be you by now and you should be me, so you had better take the same care of me as I am taking of you as I write this. 
In fact, bump that shit! Take the same kinda care of me that I am taking of you by writing this shit in the first place.
We both know you would have hit your zenith in 7th grade, and shit's just gonna go down from here just like in that corner bathroom across from the 8th grade lounge. How do I know?
I'm as old and tired as you should be now and you might be as enchanted and prone as I should be now. Je t'es, tu me serai. As we, I mean, I say. It's hard to keep things straight with the dark side of my mind untied and tripping until it's dripping all over its small self.
Since being tired is getting old, and seeing as being old is getting tired, I'll cut the ado of adulthood: Stay the course. You'll understand when you get to be as old as I was, that should be soon after reading this.
Independent of what pointlessly diverging contingencies you would have followed: MD/PhD, MD + PhD, Masters + MD/PhD, Masters + MD + PhD, DO/PhD, DO + PhD… failure… there is only one true course of events. Stay the course.
No sappy, swan song love. No happy, heritage family. No grand, garish ambition. Stay the course.
Don't waste your undead nightlife processing and appraising redundant sociological data at a single's club when you could be doing your homework then work at a couple's club. Don't fork out for some fancy clothes, just plunge your fork in some melktart in for munye in SA, some mochi for hitotsu in Japan or some açaí for um in Brazil. Don't plan some surprise party your attachments will throw for you when the biggest surprise would be the fruition of said party. Surprise yourself with my self. Stay. The. Course.
My future, your present, and his past are up to you. So, work off a reasonable portion of your debt for occupying this earth, take care of your parents into the enviable twilight of their senescence, and do all the other… things. But don't worry, you got me because I'm stuck with you. Stay the course and he'll be sitting. Pretty. Ugly. In a bed. A good ten years of the eternally awaited retirement to go. We'll have saved him something for you. Take your pick. Sorrel, pineapple wine, bokbunja? You will have earned it from me.
This reminder may grow as my, your, his times gracefully shrink, but if you wanted a happier ending remember: sometimes the happiest ending is accepting the true ending. No bullshit. "Tu fui, ego sum ergo is erimus," as it will read.
From: Me To: You
From carmstr12 to carmstr56

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