A Letter To My Younger Self, Circa 1990

Tom Kuegler (Tom Kuegler) Advises Us To Write Like We Are Writing Letters To Our Younger Self, But Here I Am Literally Writing A Letter To My Younger Self.

Dear Little Matthew,

You don’t know it yet, but you will write this letter in the middle of a pandemic in 2021, 31 years hence, after Donald Trump (you might not know who he is yet, since Home Alone 2 isn’t out yet) has come and gone as President of the United States. If you could read this letter, you might choose to not write it, 31 years hence, but I am sorry to say we are not much further in our understanding of time travel in the present time, so I don’t know if you (I) can stop me (us).

In recent years, I have put many memories of you away. I used to think of you with immense sadness, but getting past 40 as a human being with a human brain inhabiting human consciousness means some of those memories have faded, or been processed. I have put you away, like a toy on a shelf. I have absorbed you into myself, but I haven’t made you disappear. You are part of me. I love you, my good man.

Little Matthew, I know you are sad. Middle school sucks-especially this one- full of bullies and oblivious teachers. It’s torment, I know, since I was you at that time. You will sit, mute, in many classes, watching the clock. You will do this for a while longer. You will learn what it’s like to have crushes, and you will “stand up the wall like Poindexter”, as Young MC rhymed on his huge hit album, which you like, this year. All…