To: Current Self, From: Past Self

Remember all the fun you used to have. Remember the forums you frequented, the communities you belonged, the games you played, and the friends you made? You may remember several instances of time in your life, grouped by these memories. Perhaps it was Everquest, or SWGHints, or Pax Imperius, or Darkhorse Legions, or AFoD, or Planetside, or WTFSoup, or lan parties in Mike's basement, or listening to Korn rollerblading in the hillcrest parking lot with friends, or standing in a circle near all the lockers in high school, or countless other things. Your life in the past has chronicled these things. You cherish them. If you could go back in time and re-experience them, you would give almost anything to do so. However, imagine this exact moment. What are you doing? With whom are you friends? Where do you belong? This exact moment, several exact moments in the future from now, this time and place, this part of your life, will be added to your fun life experiences of past. You will look back at Reddit as a community you once belonged. You no longer frequent that place. It no longer exists, or if it does, it no longer exists as it was, or as you were. It will be gone. Beyond your grasp. You can never go back to it, you can never relive the memories you encountered through it. It will once again, like all this before, be gone. But that time has not come yet. We are not yet in the future. Your current experiences are not a story already told, but rather, a book whose pages continue to be written. Experience this time, cherish this moment, embrace this present. Once this time is gone, it will never come back. You will never see it again. You will be looking at screenshots, and comment logs, and archived messages. Traces of something that once was relevant. It is inevitable. You cannot look back at this time in any better light by experiencing it any more thoroughly. If fact, doing so will actually cause you to miss it all the more. That doesn't matter. That isn't the point. You need to fully live this time, right now. You will never get a second chance. You will never relive it again. You will never see it again. This isn't about having no regrets or doing your best. This is about actually experiencing, recognizing, the current state of life, of your life, of this time of the world in the universe, of all universes. Remember where you are, at this very moment. And remember, when you re-read this again 6 months, 2 years, or a decade from now, this message is to you as well. You, future self, are in the same boat past self is in. You are both, current self.

Note to past self: Please make future self happy.

Note to future self: Please be thankful for what past self has given you.

Note to current self: live for current self, don't worry about past or future self. They will be fine.