As a kid I was always fascinated with time capsules. The past meeting the present was such a cool notion to me and if I were handy with a shovel and my dad allowed me to dig up the back yard I would have created my own. Instead, as a compromise, I wrote letters to myself and hid them for years in a piggy bank behind my bed.

During my annual trip home for Christmas I found one of my letters. It was five years old from the summer before I went off to college. In it I wrote about the way things were then: my relationship status, family members I’d lost, my anxieties about going to school and where I wanted to be in the next five years.

Finding and reading the letter, communicating with a younger version of myself was very insightful. It showed me who I was then, gave me an opportunity to see how I’d grown since and spelled out in my own handwriting what I still had left to achieve.

If you’re thinking about writing a letter to yourself, only you will know how to complete it; but in case you need help getting started, here are some elements/ideas you might want to include.