To my potential children,

I’m eighteen right now. I’m irresponsible and argumentative and not the person who might someday create you just yet; but I’m getting there. I’m finishing my first year at college and as I’m sure I will have told you, it is quite a time in a person’s life. If you had asked me even a few months ago what my goals were, I would have laughed. Now I have a legitimate answer to that question—or the beginnings of one. I’m an environmental science major and as of now I am very certain that I will remain on this path. Who knows, maybe by the time you read this I’ll be a bonafide adult! An engineer or a scientist, an architect or an advocate? Who could say? But I hope it will be something that has made you proud, and I hope that it will be something that has made the Earth proud. There are no opinions I care about more.

I’ll be honest, honey, it could all turn out that way, but as for now I don’t have high hopes for the future. Currently Trump is president, sea levels are rising, and so are temperatures. There is little positivity, little compassion, little understanding. This is a time in which climate change equates guilt, anger, conflict, politics; things that as your mother I wish you never had to encounter, though I know you will. Because I can imagine a future in which these things continue and you are reading this letter from under your smog mask or inside your oxygenated apartment on the 50th floor in a super-city. A future in which people remain scared and no one takes responsibility. But these thoughts make me feel gross inside and this letter is not meant to be about fear or darkness. Because here I am, in my present, trying my best to take some responsibility. So maybe things will be better some day!

I can also picture you reading this under the shade of a birch tree at Honeyrock or in my childhood home. Breathing in clean air, touching plants, loving a dog just like I do. I will choose to hope for the second. I chose to hope that we will be there together! That young, lazy people like myself will get our acts together and become the innovators that the world needs. Wish me lucky honey. I will see you in a month for my grandson’s graduation. I am so proud of all of you, and love you with my entire being.

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More Messages to the Future

Dear future me,

I am 19 years old, and I am angry.

Dear Amara and Uma,

Maybe you heard about bats? Bats, the carriers of this disease that spread among us like wild fire. I love bats. When I was your age today, sitting in the evening on the back terrace of your grandparent’s home in Ibiza, hundreds of bats would play, dance and sing among the trees.

To my Children,

As you look through your window, I hope you will see a bright future. I hope you dream big, and that you have the courage, drive, and fortitude to do everything you can to achieve those dreams.

Dear Lillyana,

I will continue to work to make the Earth a cleaner and safer place for you to grow and explore.

Dear Evan,

We want your future family to enjoy the same beautiful places we enjoyed.

Queridos nietas/nietos,

Creo que debo hacer más. Por ello, he decidido escribir esta breve carta para empezar un proceso en el que vaya escribiendo más cartas, conforme vaya teniendo más claridad de mis posibles contribuciones.

Dear Tomorrow,

I promise to ditch all the natural gas and go all electric with my home!

Dear Grandchildren,

So here we are. In 2022 millions of people are suffering from the climate catastrophes, killing pollution and pandemic, not mentioning about poverty, gender and social injustice, racism, wars and dictatorships that can go on as long as bad people in power are allowed to grab our natural resources.

Al mio piccolo, grandissimo bambino,

Hai compiuto da poco 1 anno e giusto ieri hanno annunciato la scoperta di 7 pianeti che potrebbero racchiudere in essi la possibilità di sviluppare, o aver già sviluppato, vita a livello organico.

To the People in my Future Life,

Anytime I’m at the crossroads of life, I pray that I, or anyone else in the same position, will keep you in mind, and try to shape a world that’s the best possible for you.

Fe,

As one push of a button can set a spinner in motion, so too can the actions of one in creating a world that allows you to thrive, to giggle, to love.

To all the people here on earth,

Who knows what the future would look like? or what will happened in the future? No one knows right? That’s why it it’s scary because we don’t know what lies ahead. We couldn’t stop the future but we can always change it.

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