I received a letter from the past today. It was sent by myself, on Sunday, February 12th, 2006, and it read as follows:

This is a little message I sent to my future me. I hope you are doing well. It’s cold out here now, but the sun is shining and it’s a wonderful day. Tomorrow is work again. Back to fixing 2.0 bugs. But all in all, things are fine. Have a nice day.

There’s a website called FutureMe.org, that allows you to send emails to yourself in the future. It’s an interesting read to go through the public entries. People send letters to themselves up to 20 or 30 years into the future, with questions and reflections on all kinds of things. Of course, you’d better hope that the email box will still be around in 30 years (and that SMTP is still used).

Personally, it’s nice to receive a little email from myself. Of course, back in my mind I knew I had, but I had forgotten when and what I wrote. It’s a nice little reminder. A thought from my past reaching out in time. Since then, I’ve only switched jobs (twice!) and moved to an entirely different city. And I’m now happily watching the innovation team sitting and fixing 2.2 bugs, while I’m supporting the 2.0 branch. Life is strange.

Or, like Winnie the Pooh said: “Yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present!” (Thanks, Sophie!)