Dear Future Me, 

It’s hard to picture where you might be or what you may be doing with your life, but if I know anything about us you are probably standing in some barn somewhere right now. With a world evolving and changing as fast as this one, thinking about the future can be terrifying. However, with that fear comes excitement. Excitement about new goals, decisions, journeys, and adventures.  

With that being said, let’s begin here, “future me”. Did you make it yet? Did you reach the top? Have you finally done it? The truth is even as my present self, I’m not even sure what those questions mean, or what they entail. In my opinion there is no top, best of the best, cream of the crop, or however you want to say it. There are simply goals and dreams. Nine-year-old me dreamed of taking riding lessons. Twelve-year-old me dreamed of owning my own pony. Fifteen-year-old me dreamed of becoming a working student. Eighteen-year-old me dreamed of one day competing at the upper levels. Now as a twenty-one-year-old, I only dream to enjoy the process. After years of hard work and long hours to accomplish those “dreams” I’ve realized it’s the chase that I enjoy the most.  

It’s spending an hour at the walk trying to get my horse on the bit while fighting back the tears because they “just aren’t round enough yet”. It’s tasting the dirt and blood in my mouth after falling off time and time again simply because I haven’t seemed to figure out how to not jump up the horse’s neck. It’s spending what feels like an eternity at the same ditch trying to get the horse over, even though we have jumped it numerous times before with no problems. While this doesn’t seem like living the dream to most, it does to me. The dream is going through that process and coming out on the other side with the best dressage score, clear show jumping, and the cross country run that feels like a fairytale.  

So, future me, I hope you are still chasing that dream but enjoying the process along the way. I hope you are still working hard to achieve what everyone tells you will never be possible. I hope you are thriving and learning from each and every mistake. But most of all, I hope that you never stop dreaming.  

Love,  

Your present-self (Jenna Levesque)