Note to my future self.

Times have changed since I wrote that note. This photo is 51/2 years old now, and they're both mine.

Do you remember I set the 20 years on challenge for my sister. Well for posterity I thought I would post both of our answers here. Hopefully we can look back in years to come and see how on track we both were.
Tania wrote

September 28 at 8:23pm

That's tough as! Your kids will be my age! Ok, here's my psychic reading: I can't see you working for someone else. Don't know about hair dressing either. Maybe you'll keep your foot in it cos you love it, but perhaps a weekend lady. Maybe you'll have a salon room in your house with a side entrance. Living a "natural" life. Not Byron, but you get the drift, maybe somewhere like what Byron used to be. Not necessarily hippy but, just earthy. But still within beach reach. I wonder where that is? It'd be nice if you grew your own fruit,veg,herbs. And had chooks. I feel like I'm on the trampoline again. Maybe you'd do something else that you've discovered, kinda like the nail polish lady, but with your own spin. Maybe making your own natural hair products. It's tough because I actually get along with Daren really well, just cant necessarily picture you both as oldies together. Maybe if I think of him a little like Uncle Daryl? Joyce has that little plant nursery on the property. Have you seen that photo on his profile? Its at the front near the house. Daryl's a rev head, but he is a farmer. Daren should do an agriculture course. You should. You might go do Uni? I could imagine it!!! That's it ya know!!! Quit at the end of this year and go to uni 2009. I knew if I rambled long enough something would click and that's it. You should be learning at Uni. Mmm, now which uni? That's exciting. Stevens telling me I should be doing this in Chapters! He thinks I could come up with a whole shit load of rubbish. He wishes I'd show him what I was writing. He'd laugh think I was a tosser. Nah, actually he thinks its nice that we're the way we are together. Was it scary for you to ask me what I thought? Not because I'm scary, but just to have someone else's honest foresight? I'm too scared to think of mine. I kind of see me exactly the same as now, just old with kids and friends and a good social life. I'm starving, time to raid the fridge. Hope I gave you something!
x tan

My idea of her was
I see you guys together still. Having typical old couple fights that make other people laugh, but always having love of family uniting you. A fair chunk of your life will revolve around your kids and community events. After getting into P&C meetings and school fundraisers it was a natural progression to organise events for charities and the like. Great balls and ladies lunches. Which of course you have to look glamorous for. You still work out and look great, in fact I think you may have had some work done? Your kids are still living at home, why would they move out? You still have your girlfriends around. Some are remarrying for the second time so you have all sorts of different things to attend, and your kids see a liberal minded you, with girlfriends in the kitchen all the time talking over drinks. Not too scary I hope? I actually like your version of me better than the one I imagined for myself.

I got thinking of these when I found a note from around my 22nd birthday, where I was talking about wanting to be a mother. I had to seriously convince Daren of the parenting idea, and at this point we'd gotten far enough to agree on adoption, so I was relieved. I remember dreaming about children, and waking up depressed that I might never get to experience it. It was like a terrible ache. Watching "You've got mail" made me cry because of the scene in her bookstore, where Meg Ryan swings a little girl around. I was a mess. My greatest longing in recent times, is to one day get the beach shack, but it doesn't go anywhere near the gap that this left. Not long after that note I would have discovered that I am ineligible to adopt babies due to being perfectly capable of having my own. The sadness began again, until I realised that Daren's biggest fear was of losing me in childbirth. I was able to point out that in this day and age, that is a largely irrational fear. That was 1999, and in October of 2000 he had agreed to have our own baby. Unfortunately my first pregnancy ended at 11 weeks, but by November24, 2001. I had my baby boy in my arms. Funny how a few words can bring back so many vivid memories that I haven't thought about for years. The universe seems to be taking me on a trip down memory lane lately. Is there something I'm supposed to remember?