A Letter to Future Me

Posted on April 10, 2025

Hello and welcome to Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month! This month, I got an email suggesting we do something different and fun for April. My fellow bloggers and I were given the idea to write letters to our future selves about what we hope to achieve in life and the advice we have for ourselves. Last year, we had to write about what being autistic means to us, and now this year, it’s writing a letter to ourselves.

Dear Annie Snow,

I am writing to you to tell you a few things. One of them is that I am proud of how far you have come in your autism journey. I know it’s not always easy living with autism and have been told you would never be able to do certain things, but somehow, you managed to prove everyone wrong. You were told you could never read or write, but you succeed in those to this day. Now, you are living the dream of being a published blogger, writing for a website you have come to love and with a good team of bloggers. You were told you could never get an education, but you made it through all those years of school and got a high school diploma, which probably wasn’t guaranteed. You may not have a college degree, but you got that diploma. I think overcoming some of those things is worth saying “I’m proud of myself.” Not everyone has a job where they are happy or that they love. I am happy you found yourself a group of people that you can connect with and be good friends with. You are more social than you were in the past. You found the right people to be friends with so I know that is one thing you’ve achieved in life. You have a lot to be happy about, even though you wish you could change some things you aren’t happy with. Some days are more stressful than others, but you get through those stressful times with strength and your faith.

I almost forgot to mention that you said in one of your blog posts that you had some goals you wanted to accomplish. You said how you wanted to learn how to cook/bake and learn new recipes. So far, you have learned a few recipes, and you find that therapeutic. What was once a skill you never wanted to learn in the past, you now love. You wanted to try new crafts and go out more. Those things you are still working on, and I’m so proud of you for that as well. You get depressed because you can’t drive or work a regular job, etc., but you don’t know how easy you have it because you only see things from a certain angle. In fact, you don’t see that you have it easier than most people. Some have it a lot harder than you, and they wish to have your life.

If I had any advice to give to you, it would be to keep moving forward because you got this far in life, don’t stop now no matter what. Just because you are facing a challenge doesn’t mean you can’t overcome it. I faced my fair share of challenges and look at where I am now. If I can do it, so can you. You are bigger than your obstacles. You can fly as high as a kite with a little faith. You can’t get depressed about little things, especially the little things you know you are not able to do, like driving. You knew your whole life that you couldn’t do that, so why be sad about that?

I know that this is a long-winded letter, but I had to say some things to future Annie that I feel she needs to hear. I want her to listen to this stuff because she doesn’t often see the good parts of her life. She still thinks she has it hard, and the people around her keep telling her she doesn’t. So, writing this should help her to understand better. If telling her won’t work, I don’t know what will. I hope Annie reads this letter and it sinks in.

Sincerely,
Annie Snow