Dear Me 2025

Dear Me,

         Your year is starting off all wrong. You're definitely setting yourself up for a major catastrophe. Nothing good will happen—

         I thought you were supposed to be encouraging me. This doesn't sound like the kind of letter I'd want to read.

         What? You're not supposed to be here! I'm trying to advise you about what to do and focus on this year, and you're interrupting me.

         I've got lots of ideas about what to do already. I signed up for Jeff's Bradbury Project to write a story a week all year.

         Nonsense, you really think you can keep up with that? Your life is chaos: you don't know what will happen from one day to the next. Why set yourself up for failure by burdening yourself with unnecessary tasks?

         It's easy; I've already done two weeks of it and the month's not half over. I'm writing anyway, I might as well write stories. And it isn't a task or a chore—it's fun.

         I don't know why you feel the need to inject yourself into this letter. I'm the one writing, not you.

         You're supposed to be helping me set goals and make plans for self improvement. You seem awfully pessimistic.

         I'm just telling you the way life is. You know you can't meet goals in your current situation. You never even wanted to set them until now, when you're all excited about Habit Heroes and this letter I'm supposed to be writing to you.

         I'm here to tell you it's all nonsense. Wouldn't you rather spend your evenings carefree, listening to your favorite music, than stressing over writing inane stories no one will ever read? Look, here's a quote now from OneRepublic:

"Are we gonna sink or swim?
Tide's getting high and we might go under
I just wanna dive right in
Cause if we don't now then we'll always wonder…"

         It's been a while since you listened to Sink or Swim, hasn't it? Why not settle back, zone out, forget about that writing community you found—

         Are you kidding? The song you tossed at me is a reminder to take life by the horns. Zoning out with music isn't being productive, generally speaking. It's something I do sparingly when I don't have more important priorities. Songs will always be there. Opportunities for progress won't.

         Ok, who's the advisor here? If you're so wise, why didn't you just write this letter yourself?

         I really expected better from you. No wonder I've never accomplished anything, with someone like you taking up space in my head.

         Ah, now you're talking! All those fancy ribbons and medals and badges on your portfolio, they don't mean a thing. You're totally wasting your time hanging out on WdC.

         I've learned a multitude of skills from this community: patience, setting and reaching goals, time management, organization, communication, conflict mitigation, teamwork. It's a microcosm of the real world, a self sufficient ecosystem. My activities on WdC are just as valid as anything I do in the real world.

         Fine then, smarty-pants. What kind of writing goals do you hope to reach in 2025?

         Let's see… Annette graciously invited me to join I Write this year, so I'm planning on doing my best to reach 25 contest entries and 25 reviews of the person behind me by September 30th.

There's the Bradbury Project, which I already mentioned, and a parallel contest to submit one story a month to.

I intend to submit to every monthly Official WdC Contest, including the Dear Me, which you're supposed to be writing…

There's the 48-hour Media Prompt Challenge, which happens once a month.

I also want to do Merit Badge Magic as much as possible. These materials will fall under the umbrella of the Bradbury, except for whatever ends up being poetry.

Which reminds me, I'm thoroughly enjoying Lilli's Promptly Poetry challenge and look forward to completing my first year's participation this August. Maybe she'll host a sixth year of it.

Oh, and how can I forget Jody's Contest Challenge? I'm rolling with it—why, I'm halfway through my second year already!

         Good grief, that's far too much commitment. How do you expect to complete so many writing projects while fulfilling your real world duties?

         That's where time management comes in. I'm accustomed to prepping a monthly WdC to-do list, and this year won't be any different. The itemized list helps me stay organized and keep my goals in view. I portion off my evenings for journaling anyway to keep my head straight; I might as well write creative work that others seem to greatly appreciate.

         Ok, creating content is one thing. If you can do that successfully, cool. But don't tell me you're also going to be reviewing other people's work as well?!

         Yes, actually. I completed almost one review each day in 2024, and I plan to keep the streak going in 2025. With one review a day, I can easily reach the monthly Angel Army goal, which usually makes me their Reviewer of the Month.

I'm also excited about Jeremy's B. E. A. R. project this year, where twenty reviews meeting his standards earns you an exclusive Communi-Bees MB of your choice. By ensuring my daily review qualifies, I can earn one of those adorable honeybee badges each month.

I might also do some Anniversary Reviews to earn extra GPs. Plus it would be nice to earn Annette's exclusive MB's I missed last year, so starting August, I'll try to complete 24 each month. Alternately, I could offer to rejoin the AR Team and help her credit each review. I really enjoyed doing that last year. It was like being the treasurer of a club.

         This sounds like a ridiculous amount of work. You're not getting paid to do these things! What's the motivation?

         I'm a valuable member of a thriving writing community, and it's fun to participate. And in a manner of speaking, I am getting paid: I've earned the equivalent of nine hundred dollars in WdC Gift Points, and I haven't spent a single penny of real money here.

Besides, I'm engaging my mind in a way I always dreamed of but never thought was possible. And my fellow members are kind, generous, encouraging and supportive; each day is rewarding just by being present with them.

Plus there's Gervic's DragonVale, where everything I do on WdC adds up to feed a beautiful dragon and earn glorious awards. I'm debating purchasing a second egg now that Willowinde is full grown, perhaps a higher ranking egg for a bigger award.

         You sound boastful. You know they say pride goes before a fall, and yet there you are, brandishing those shiny awards and exclusive MB's on the Newsfeed. Aren't you afraid someone's going to give you the evil eye when they see how "successful" you are?

         That's a ridiculous superstition. I'm not doing it to brag, I just want to show how beautiful they all are. No point in letting them languish in my Community tab. Also, it helps others learn about the many different writing projects available on WdC.

         Now I'm curious: what's the one thing you're most proud of accomplishing on WdC in 2024?

         The pride and joy of my entire portfolio right now is my "Oh My My"  folder, where I spent two months in 2024 taking eighteen tracks from one of my favorite OneRepublic albums and writing a story for each one to enter Jeff's Musicology Anthology. It's my beloved baby.
The stories span a wide range of genres, many of them won independent awards, two placed in Official WdC Contests, and the folder won first place in the MA. I've honored a little-known album from a band I love, and the writing process was a wonderful and inspiring learning experience.

         Wow, knowing your usual lackadaisical and unstructured attitude, grinding out a project like that is pretty impressive. All bragging aside, do you really think you'll accomplish as much or more in 2025 than you did in 2024?

         Isn't that why we're writing this letter? I'm setting up my expectations for the year, and whether I reach all of them or not, it's good to know what I plan to be working on. I'm not going to put undue pressure on myself if things come up in real life which require my attention. But at the same time, I'm not going to let naysayers like you tell me I shouldn't be setting these goals.

         Humph. I'm just being realistic here. You seem exhaustingly optimistic all of a sudden. But if you insist on such lofty goals, I suppose I have no choice but to encourage you. I don't want your mental health to decline if you fall short. You can achieve great things with a little determination and planning… and you know what? I hate to admit it, but I'm proud of you. You've come a long way since you joined Writing.com.

I just remembered another song you like which seems appropriate:

Here's to my future, here's to my yesterday!
Here's to change, oh here's to my yesterday!
No tomorrow without a yesterday!
Here's to my future, goodbye to yesterday!
— Imagine Dragons, "Yesterday"

Sincerely,
Yours Truly.

         PS: do try to make some time to listen to music. You bought those wonderful new earbuds last summer, and you've hardly listened to a fraction of your playlist with them yet. You're missing out on a fabulous experience.

         I have every intention of setting aside time for my music and the journaling which goes with it. If used sparingly, it feeds my imagination. Now leave me alone so I can work on my entry for Max Griffin's Tales Shown, Not Told, ok? I have a splendid idea to incorporate all three prompts…

Words: 1625.
Written for the January 2025 round of the Official WdC Contest, Dear Me, where we write a letter to ourselves discussing our plans for the year ahead.