The Background
In March 2017, I attended a religious retreat: a Kairos retreat. It was my Junior year of high school, and I won my first state championship in wrestling just a few weeks before. I was still on cloud nine at the time.\
Anyways, my high school–Jesuit High School (New Orleans)–requires its students to attend a religious retreat during their junior year. I chose this specific retreat because it occurred right after wrestling season ended. Little did I know, that Kairos retreat was one of my favorite experiences during high school.
There was one neat activity at the retreat that recently affected me.
At Kairos, every Jesuit student wrote a letter to his “future self”–four years into the future. I completely forgot about my letter until recently. When I came home from working at Dollar General a few weeks ago, I noticed that I received a letter from my high school. I was fairly confused because the address on the letter’s envelope was handwritten. Once I opened up the letter, I quickly remembered that I wrote a “letter to my future self” during my Kairos retreat. After a long day of doing retail work, reading my letter was a pleasant surprise.
I’m honestly surprised how wise I was as a 17 year-old. I might have been wiser then than I am now haha.
But seriously, I thought that I should share my letter with you. So without further ado, here is my “letter to my future self” from March 2017
The Letter Itself
Dear Future Self,
Remember how bless I am to be loved by so many people and by God. Keep focused on Christ and him crucified. At this current time, I am finishing my Kairos retreat during my junior year. It was truly amazing. I heard so many positive things about myself from both reading my pelanka letters and from listening to my classmates during the “strength bombardment” session.
Everything that has happened and will happen in my life is for a purpose. God is always in control and will always be with me even in my darkest times. Nothing will ever separate me from God’s love. Also, don’t ever stop being the person got meant me to become. Always be kind, generous, humble, industrious, courageous, confident, and loving. Keep life in perspective and remain joyful and faithful.
Remember what it means to be a Blue Jay and how blessed I am to have gone to Jesuit, to be a state champ in wrestling, and to be well-liked by everyone at school. Don’t be afraid to be outgoing and meet new people wherever I am. I didn’t even know a single person in my grade going into 8th grade, but I know so many people now and have made many friends friends and acquittances.
Whether I’m in college, married, or working, I know that God loves me and forgives me of my sins. God even forgives me even when I can’t forgive myself. Don’t forget how loved I am and how many tears of joy cried this past weekend. Remind myself how important going to Church is and how I need to keep touch with my family and friends. I know that mom, dad, Gideon, and Jillian have blessings in my life. I’m lucky to have them as my family. Thank God also for my loving and caring grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins as they all have touched my life in various, wonderful ways. Additionally, don’t cease praying and delight in reading the Scriptures.
I know I will be happy to read this letter in 4 years. Keep growing physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. The LORD will provide for me between now and 4 years from today. Don’t forget who I am and keep being who I now. Sorry that the letter was really long 🙂
God Bless,
Nathan Koenig (Nate Dawg)