Underlined For Your Protection

Hello, Derek!

It’s you again. :) Oh, it’s a smiley face (you have to look at it sideways). Don’t start doing it.
The last letter turned up some interesting results. It didn’t improve our life nor our memories. It seems the feeling of regret is not necessarily tied to a specific moment or moments in time but rather to a memory as a whole. Interesting. We’ll have to test that theory more in the future, but for now we are going to focus on a different type of scenario.
You should be reading this about halfway through your sophomore year of high school and you should be just starting to play with the basketball team (go Warriors!). I realize you have a lot of things going on in your life right now and there are some impending changes that are distracting you, but don’t let it take away from this time. Basketball is one of our favorite things still and it needs to play a bigger role in our life during your time. Play the way you play. Don’t worry about running plays or the fact that you came in late. You are one of the better players and you need to show that. Enjoy playing basketball.
Next year you will be in a new school in a new state. You are going to want to not play, sort of as an act of rebellion, but I implore you not to do that! Play! Don’t worry about being in a new school or not knowing anyone, you don’t stay friends with any of them anyway. But basketball is a joy and if you focus and stay dedicated, maybe we can make something out of it. I’m not saying you’re going to join the NBA or anything, but college ball is not out of the question. And you’re better than all of those Midwestern hicks, so don’t let that hold you back.
If you do, come your senior year you will be playing with a freshman named Steven Hill (you’ll know him when you see him). There will be scouts checking him out and maybe you can impress them. But you’ll have to continue to improve. Work on your left hand, your floaters, and your passing. You’ll meet a kid named Bryden at Point Royale at some point. Play with him more. Practice with him. He has a great work ethic and can teach you a lot.
This may not work out. This may do nothing but take up all your free time, but you don’t use that for anything good anyway (work…pft!). Even so, you’ll have more fun those first few years there. 

penpeniel:

barack-motherfucking-obama:

deidaras-glittery-dildos:

punkmonksteven:

lalatula:

*does the anime character with glasses thing*

Does that really work though?

What…?

Really guys? Let’s see about that.

MOTHER OF GOD

Well I guess I might as well try it out too

not that it’s gonna

hOLY SHIT

what have I done

yo hold up lemme give this a shot

HOLY SHI T

DEAR LORD THIS IS AMAZING

Yeah, but if you don’t wear glasses…

It’s not like you can just…

I’m attracted to you like a kite to a tree, whirling ever so carefree toward my own destruction.

Hello, Derek!

It’s me (you) from the future! This letter is coming to you from the year 2013. I would like to start off by saying there still are no hoverboards, so you can go ahead and give up on that fantasy. Anyway, that’s not my point. My point is I am here to give you advice.
If my calculations are correct, you should be receiving this letter on April 17th, 1997. Tomorrow you will be taking a field trip with your Spanish class to Olvera Street. On the train ride there, you will meet a girl named Lisa. She is special. As the next two years go on, you will become very close to her. Don’t take advantage of that. 
It’ll start with passing notes in class. Don’t be afraid to write back while in school. Don’t worry about your grades, they will be just fine. You don’t end up going to college anyway (that might come in a later letter). There will also be two other girls who are going to be writing you notes and flirting with you your sophomore year—Sharon and Lauren. Forget about them. They are not important. Ask Lisa out early. Take her on dates, even though she lives far away. Kiss her when you want. She will kiss you back, don’t worry. There will be times when you have an opportunity at school and you are going to be too afraid, but do it anyway. And don’t be afraid to use your tongue! Ask her to prom before Jon has a chance. And when the time comes for you to leave (and you will leave) tell her how you feel. But let her go. She’s not the one.
This letter is just a test. If all goes well, I will be sending you future letters to help you through times you don’t quite do right. Don’t worry, your life turns out fine. But there are times when you don’t jump when you should and I’m going to help give you that push. Consider it an early lesson on adulthood.

I woke up this morning with a terrible feeling of being a bad person. And I’m not a bad person in the sense that I do bad things, but I don’t always do the right thing. But sometimes I just don’t know how am afraid to. Like, things have been going okay why chance making things better when you might just make them worse. I guess that’s how you improve life—by taking risks. 

I’ve never been much of a risk taker. I like to carefully plan out all my decisions and make sure they are full-proof before moving forward. And I’m sure that’s held me back more than I’d like to admit, but at least I don’t have to feel let down that way. Ugh! Such a pathetic train of though that is!

I can look back on my life and think of all the good times that would have been great times if I had just taken that riskful step; a step that, in retrospect, wasn’t that risky after all. If I could write time-traveling letters to myself, I would fix those moments of the past. Still, that doesn’t change my current situation. It’s probably time to change.

Microwaveable burritos are the only food that can be scolding to the touch and still frozen all at the same time.

I make interesting life choices.

I want my tombstone to read, “Here lies Derek. He died living.”