I will, in certain teas, add a splash of milk, which is what I unceremoniously did one morning. Force of habit (or vegan diet), I always vigorously shake the carton of dairy-free milk before said splash, which means when the lid didn’t go on quite right on a recent morning, I put the carton back for only half a second. “I’ll remember,” I told myself, knowing full well I wouldn’t.
Sighing, I placed the carton on the counter and then—rather than forcing it down—I unscrewed and recrewed the lid. Properly. Tightly.
“Future Me will thank me for this,” I muttered as I shuffled back to my room, hot tea in hand, and directly to my bulletin board where I jotted that down.
What else will Future Me thank me for? I think Future Me will thank me for being dedicated to getting my 10,000 steps in every day and being disciplined in my physical health. But Future Me will also thank me for the memory of going to a vegan French bakery in Montreal with the love of my life and ordering (essentially) one of everything.
Future Me definitely loves the “obviously good” decisions. But I’d be lying if Current Me didn’t sometimes look back at Past Me’s “bad decisions” with a little smirk. A little added toughness. A little wiser appreciation.
When it comes to milk cartons, it almost always pays to close them properly. I can with near certainty promise you won’t remember in the morning.
But when it comes to late nights or early mornings, a foamy latte or a random date, sometimes, we really don’t know what Future Us is rooting for.
But there is something really freeing in giving them a chance to find out.
