It would be an ordinary day for most of you following same routines to get up have breakfast and go to school or work. To me it was special because today was my birthday. As I was anxiously looking for the greetings I may have received, I got an email “you have received an email from March 2016”. I was swept away from my feet and immediately anxious to know its contents.  

I will pause here for a moment because I am a time travel geek and will put forth a thought experiment. If you write to your future self, five or ten years in the future and you forget about it would it be then considered time travel in the future? To me it’s a yes because it was a direct letter from my past self in 2016 to my future self in 2021 at a specific time. 

This letter reminded me on my goals and what path I should be on by now. I am very pleased to say that I am on the right track on where I want to go, and my past self would be proud of me. Too often in the hustle and bustle of life we get lost. It doesn’t happen in a day or a month but slowly with the sands of time that erode those small hopes that we may have saved so carefully in the treasure chest of our dreams. This letter was my beacon of light so if I ever got lost along the way it would be my compass.  

 “For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”- Steve Jobs.  

I will write another letter to myself and hope that my future self-appreciates just as I have. I would also recommend you to try this as well and who knows this might help you in ways that you would have not even predicted and why you may ask? Time travel of course.   

Saad Azhar
Building Technology
Aalto study options
Contact email: aaltosquad(at)aalto.fi