When Queen Emily commands a meme be completed, one must obey.
The Rules:
- Depending on your age, go back 10, 15, 20, or even more years.
- Tell us how many years back you have traveled.
- Pretend you have met yourself during that era, and tell us where you are.
- You only have one “date” with this former self.
- Answer the questions.
I have gone back 20 years which sorta freaks me out that I can go back 20 years. We’ll say it’s June, halfway through the year, just because. Young me is 22 and living in student housing in Northridge, California where she is attending grad school. She and her fiance (AKA Bookman) of two months are looking for an affordable apartment near campus. I caught up with young me sitting on a bench in the shade on the quad.
- Would your younger self recognize you when you first meet? Totally. Different hairstyle and my hair is darker and sort of reddish since it no longer gets bleached blond by the California sun (this would be disturbing to her because she loves being blond), but there would be no mistaking that I might be an (albeit older) evil twin.
- Would she be surprised to discover what you are doing job wise? Would she ever. She is in grad school planning a future as an academic and dreaming of being a famous feminist theorist and beloved literature professor. She would not be able to imagine that her future self is in grad school studying library and information science and dreaming of becoming a techie humanities librarian.
- What piece of fashion advice would you give her? Sorry to say she could probably give me fashion advice. She actually liked to shop and read fashion magazines back then. She would be disappointed to know that I hate shopping and couldn’t care less about keeping up with what is fashionable.
- What do you think she is most going to want to know? She’d probably want to know how the wedding went and whether she is still married to Bookman. Did they have kids? Where is she working? And where is she living?
- How would you answer her question? I’d tell her that she is still happily married to the Bookman and they didn’t have kids (which would probably be a relief to her). I don’t think I would tell her anything else though, just that there will be good times and hard times but she will be happy.
- What would probably be the best thing to tell her? Relax, enjoy life, don’t be so uptight and stressed over school, and don’t worry so much about finances.
- What is something that you probably wouldn’t tell her? I wouldn’t tell her about the 6.7 earthquake that she is going to experience in a little over a year. Even if she knew she’d be fine she’d worry about it too much. I also wouldn’t want to tell her that it would take nearly 20 years for her to figure out what she really wanted to be when she grew up. Oh, and I wouldn’t tell her that in two years she’d be a vegan. That would probably freak her out a little bit because at age 22 vegetarian, let alone vegan, is something she has never considered.
- What do you think will most surprise her about you? That I am living in Minnesota and love experiencing all the seasons. That Minneapolis of all places is the city that she loves most and wants to live in the rest of her life. At that point in her life she thought she could only ever be happy in California or maybe the Pacific Northwest if she had to consider an alternative.
- At this point in your life, would you like to run into “you” from the future? Part of me wants to meet 62-year-old me but only if that me could say, “don’t worry, everything will be fine and you will be happy.” But since there are no guarantees I’d rather not meet her. I much prefer not knowing. Besides, I wouldn’t want to lose the pleasure of imagining all the happy possibilities the future might hold, the trips I might take and the people I might meet.
The questions were harder to answer than I thought. I won’t tag anyone, but if you want to play along, please be sure to let me know!
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I love this meme. What a great exercise. My younger self would be amazed and surprise at how her life would turn out. It’s funny how our life takes us in directions we would never imagine when we are in our early twenties.
What a great meme! I loved reading your responses.
Thanks for playing my little game. Wow, you and your Bookman have been together for a LONG time
! My younger self could also have been curious about whether or not I’d have children. I actually wish someone (not necessarily the future me, but just someone) had been able to say to me, “You won’t, and you won’t be a societal pariah for not doing so, no matte how it might feel now.”
More spelling errors. That’s “matter,” not “matte.”
This meme misses the most important question: What reading advice would you give her?
Ooo, you are right! How could I have left that out?
20 year ago you and 20 year ago me weren’t all that far apart…I was living in San Luis Obispo and going to Cal Poly. 20 year ago me would probably be surprised to hear that I’m living only a few miles down the road, though.
I do love this meme and these are great answers. Our trajectories are more similar than I ever expected, as twenty years ago I was more or less doing the same thing – getting married, being a grad, preparing for a future as an academic. And it does take a long time to figure out what one really wants to do!!
Ooo… a meme. I haven’t seen one in awhile, let alone written one. I was imagining answers as I read along. Perhaps I will make time to post tomorrow since I already posted something today.
I was amused that a 6.7 earthquake and becoming vegan were on par for ability to frighten. Enjoyed your answers.
Your answers are interesting! I agree about not wanting to meet my future self — I’d prefer to have the room for planning and daydreaming. It’s interesting how our ideas about place change — I would never have guessed that I’d enjoy Connecticut so much and would like living a relatively heavily-populated area, as opposed to the farming country where I grew up. I never thought I’d be a New Englander!
This meme… at first I thought to go back 20 years — and I was in college, but then I went back 23 years and realized that I was [on October 3rd, the day I write this]… still staring at the hundred syllabi given to me a month previous, in my then FIRST year of college — and thinking where was the nearest bridge I could fling my sorry self off of.
I thought that the task seemed impossible for me.
Turned out, four years later, I graduated with honors.
Not personal?
Love this post Stef. I saved it to complete the exercise later. Or is this a rue on my part b/c just WHEN will I have time? Maybe I’ll share my answers with my pen pal who sends me “dessert mail”….
This is so good! I think I’d be so surprised (in a good way) at where I’m with regards to career, family life and well actually a bunch of things
I love reading everyone’s answers to this meme. I had a chuckle over #3–that’s one I can relate to. There was a time I would drool over the Spiegal clothes catalog, now give me Bas Bleu any day of the week. I’m more into comfort and practicality than style–maybe I have become old. Eeek. Still, it’s nicer to be warm than fashionably cold in freezing weather!
Kathleen, it is amazing looking back how differntly things turn out even when, at the time we are so very sure of the future.
Rebecca, thanks! It was a little unnerving thinking about the answers.
Emily, Bookman and I will be celebrating our 19th year wedding anniversary at the end of this month. How time flies! At the time we decided on no kids it did seem like we were going against the grain but there are so many other people we know who didn’t have kids either that now it doesn’t seem like a big deal.
Sylvia, good question! me back then was worried about reading all the “right” books and not looking stupid. Current me would tell her not to worry so much, to read what she liked and not be afraid to try books that were off the beaten path. I’m not sure she would have taken the advice though
softdrink, we were practically neighbors!
Litlove, taking a year off after my M.A. did me in for academia. Getting some fresh air and a little distance found me asking, what was I thinking? Until that point though I was so sure about my path. I’ve enjoyed the meandering detours and all that I learned in the process.
Bikkuri, LOL, I didn’t even think about the earthquake and becoming vegan being on a par but at that point in my life the possibility of not eating animal products was something to ridicule.
Dorothy, it is interesting how our ideas of place change. I always thought I’d need mountains and the ocean near me and it turns out that I am perfectly happy with lakes and lots of green.
Cipriano, that first year is so overwhelming, isn’t it? good work graduating with honors!
Richard, LOL, touche!
Helen, Oh, I haven’t gotten any dessert mail in ages
Iliana, it’s amazing the things I never considered back then that I now enjoy or don’t as the case may be.
Danielle, every fall I’d buy all the big fashion magazines and study them in detail. I was a lot more daring back then. Now i think about all the time wasted and all the reading of books I could have been doing instead! And I hear you on comfort and warmth. I’d rather look like a dork and be warm then look great and get frostbite!
Love this Stef. Loved no. 2. I actually decided to be a librarian when I started university BUT after starting I did flirt briefly with being an academic in English literature. It seemed like such a stimulating life. However, I’ve very glad I stuck with my original plan – it suits me better I think.
As for what my university self would be surprised about current me, well they would be that I’m married and have children. I really didn’t think I’d marry AND if I did marry, I didn’t think I wanted children. I met my husband when I was 24 and it did take 5 years after we were married for me to decide that I would like children.
As for best advice, they’d be pretty much the ones you gave – relax and enjoy life, oh, and take some risks (not silly ones but …). I never have been very good at that!
whisperinggums, too bad you live so far away. I think we’d have so much fun chatting about books and libraries over coffee! I have never been very good at taking risks either.
LOL, I think we would too … but just think, if it weren’t for blogs we wouldn’t even be able to do this!
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