I had a definite vision when I was younger of what I would look like when I was older. Generally, I would be taller than the average height I find myself at currently. My hair would be really long, and so would my legs. In short, I’d be an older but more attractive and put-together version of myself. (What could go wrong?)
Fast forward about ten years and you’ll find that age has not been kind. Everything about me is pretty average, which is to say, not what I imagined. I certainly didn’t know how future me would fare, but I wasn’t thinking this.
And even now, I’m still making trouble for future me by assuming what she’ll look like or what she’ll want to do.
For example, I’m a bit lax when it comes to laundry. I let clean clothes pile up on my floor until they grow metaphorically moldy and need to be washed again. I actually try to trick myself by putting the clothes on my bed so that I’ll have to put them away before I go to sleep.
Enter future me. Future me does everything that present me doesn’t want to do. I think, future me will be a lot less tired than present me is. She’ll put these away.
But of course, in addition to being a disappointment in looks, future me is also a disappointment in acts. Because what ends up happening is future me takes the clothes off the bed and sets them on the floor. Or she sleeps on top of them, the clever fox. It’s just pointless to ask her to do the things I need to do in the future. It’s almost like I have to make it seem like it was her idea all along…
And really, it’s not fair of me to put all of that responsibility on her. It’s not right that I am going to put off things just so that future me can deal with them. It’s not good that her “to-do” list is as long as my arm.
And here’s the biggest problem with letting my future self do the things that I should be doing: I become my future me before I know it. That’s right, it doesn’t take long for present me to overtake future me. And then I’m stuck with stuff that I could have done beforehand and there’s less time to do it in.
So, my advice is to consider your future self. Can you save her a little time by doing something now? Can you make her quality of life a little better by helping her out? If you can, you won’t have to see the future to know that she really appreciates it.
Bailey Dailey 