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G8： Letter to My Future Self

September 24, 2022

For every eighth-grade student, the start of this semester has been fast-paced: service-learning courses, quizzes, projects, essays, and competitions all piled up into the students’ planners.

Although, they were briefly relieved of their work for one afternoon on the 22nd of September by exploring their own feelings and expressing any worries or concerns that trouble them now on paper. The letters would also hopefully create a meaningful and unforgettable letter to their future self.

Undoubtedly, eighth grade is one of the most important turning points of the students’ life as it marks the end of their middle-school learning experience and leads the students to a much more intense environment: high school. Therefore, this ‘Letter to My Future Self’ will preserve their precious memories as an eighth grader and help them recall all their experiences at the beginning of the school year. When the students graduate from grade 8, the letter will be returned to them, and they will be reminded of the changes, mistakes, and improvements they made through the school year.

The letters record many parts of them, including sections like “Me, now”, “My World”, “Favorites”, “What I do”, “People in my Life”, “My Future”, and any other idea that popped into their mind when they are writing the letter. These ideas that represent their current self will be retained in their words and anchored in time.

First, in the letters, the students wrote about their current hopes, current goals, current fears, current dreams... all those which their elder selves may look back on and see if they have made their present selves proud. Did their hopes come true? Did they overcome their fears? Or would the students look back and find a silly thirteen-year-old stuck in a maze? The students were also given a chance to reflect on themselves in their present situation. “What do I like about myself?”, “What am I proud of?”, “Who am I?”, all those for their future selves to see with a laugh, relief, or tiny feeling of melancholy.

The students were to store their world in those letters: from a description of their house, their bedroom, and their pets, to current events, religion, clothes… When “My World” has taken its place in ‘A Letter to My Future Self’, it comes to the “Favorite” part. From books they like the most, to new TV shows they are watching, to songs their friends had shared to them, to comebacks of their favorite K-pop groups... Maybe, their future self would be washed with memories, or perhaps they would find a part of themselves that has not changed.

After that, the students also recorded what they are currently doing. They not only included what they do with friends, current school activities, Service-Learning groups they are in, but also competitions they are preparing for and how they spend their weekends or their Mid-autumn festival. As for the second last part of the letter, the students included people in their lives. From their loving families and siblings to their charming teachers and friends, and who they admire, respect, or want to know better. This would, when their older selves look back, remind them of how a friendship started, how the world became full of love, how a new person entered their lives… At last, the students wrote about predictions for their future. “What do I want to do?”, “What am I dreading?”, “Where do I want to go for high school, for college, for employment?” …

The letters would be the best secret-keeping knights and protect their memories until their owner reopens the letter.

Teachers actively guided students to record their thoughts and express their emotions. For students who were confused or afraid to write, the teachers comforted them considerately and helped them find the direction of writing. Students were encouraged to boldly write down their true words. After all, there are very few opportunities to truly record their true thoughts. Most of the students were very involved in this novel and special activity. They firmly grasped their dreams and goals and recorded them in this special letter.

After all of these, students wrote the date, put it in an envelope, hid the letter in a treasure box, until it was to be dug out at the end of the school year.

Written by 8(4) Enos

Supervised by Sally Gibbs

Pictures by Grade 8 Photography SL Group

Edited by Serene Yang, Niall Keenan