MILLIE BONFIELD, 16

Dear Future Self,

Well, what a year 2020 was! From celebrating the New Year in London, watching the vivid freworks with no worries, to three months later, when a war had begun with Covid-19. Can you remember the last time you could see your friends and grandparents for months? 21st March. Two days later we were all in prison. Can you remember playing monotonous board games with your family while waiting in the kitchen for the next announcement from Boris Johnson telling us how many lives coronavirus had taken that week? Tat was when it started to hit that Covid-19 really had dented the world. Can you remember having BBQs constantly because there was nothing else to do on the balmy summer days? Can you remember dying your hair and buying endless amounts of clothes just because of boredom? Tese months were the strangest ones of everyone’s lives. Remember the last day of school and our last waves of goodbye. It was all just one big rush. We had a day’s notice that our goodbyes to everyone – for what seemed like forever – were only a few hours away. Taking parting photos and actually being able to touch our friends for one last time for months. Remember being sat in the

assembly room full of wet eyes from watching the endof-school video. Remember being told prom was going to be cancelled (one of the most special nights known for a sixteen-year-old) afer weeks of excitement and planning with your friends. But the worst of all was not being able to sit your own GCSEs afer years and years of preparing for them. Do you recall Boris announcing GCSE and A-level results were going to be from teacher predictions? Although it was good in some ways, with no more stress of revision, the stress of waiting took its place. Waiting for months and months to get that email of our results and not being able to distract yourself. Knowing that your future was no longer in your hands, but in your teachers’. It was good in some ways, having time to yourself and having time to refect and getting closer to the three people you were with day in, day out. Although your sister was annoying and you did bicker with your mum, your dad always tried to calm it all down by replacing the bickering with activities to occupy us. Anyway, its 2040 and you’re thirty-six now. Wow! Do you have kids? Are you married? I hope everything is back to normal and Covid-19 is long gone. Do you still have to wear a face mask in public places? Remember sweating underneath your mask? Well at least it hid your double chin. Is hand sanitiser still everywhere in sight? Although

the majority didn’t even bother to notice it was there. I hope you achieved your dream job and I hope you’re having the best years of your life. We got through the worst! Best wishes, Your past self, Millie x