<< New Year, New Blog | Home | Are They Always This Efficient? >>
To the Self I’ll Become
My university has a tradition, one that’s probably not very unique. Incoming freshmen, during their orientation, address a letter to themselves, putting their goals and hopes and fears on paper. They stick those letters in self-addressed envelopes, hand them to their orientation leaders… and forget about them.
The letters are always mailed by… some office during the end of the finals period so that they arrive around the time those exhausted freshmen have made it home and gotten some sleep. And have begun to worry about grades. They’re always posted online before transcripts arrive, of course, but it’s a way to see how far you’ve come before opening the scarier paper version. A way to see how much you’ve accomplished in what is arguably might be the scariest three months of a young adult’s life.
I decided last week to adapt this tradition to my study abroad experience, and I wrote my letter to the self I’ll become this afternoon. I’m not comfortable with putting the letter in a place where I’ll freely be able to read it, much less online where anyone can read it. Instead, I’ll print it out tomorrow, seal it, and put it somewhere so my mother won’t accidently throw out while I’m gone.
And six months from now, when I’m back in the States and beginning to suffer from reverse culture shock, the letter will be there to show me how far I’ve come.
<< New Year, New Blog | Home | Are They Always This Efficient? >>