Dear Visa-17,
Visa-29 here. So I recently got on a Singapore Airlines plane (I know, finally!) and flew across the planet to San Francisco, California. It was, in my opinion, the best two weeks of my life. I have so much to say about it that I don’t know where to begin – until I remembered the advice that I give writers who are stuck, which is to think of the one person who you think would most want to hear from you, and to write directly to them. And so I’m writing to you.
Gosh, what would you wanna know? Some quick broad strokes about the next 12 years of your life:
- You know that girl you loved, and broke up with, and pined over? We married her! And it’s been fantastic. You’re a very lucky kid, you don’t even know it yet. (We also got two cats, can you imagine? They’re cute, annoying zen masters.)
- We started a business! We’ve sold thousands of t-shirts – I think over 10,000 at this point – and it’s opened all sorts of interesting doors and opportunities for us. And it’s just a lot of fun. Some of the t-shirts are particularly rude, you’ll love them.
- We were invited to meet the Prime Minister! Because of our Facebook posts! Turns out he’s quite a smart, thoughtful guy. This will help you realize, importantly, that you can pretty much talk to anybody about anything.
- We got a job! Working on Internet things, with incredibly smart and kind people – so all that blogging and forum posting you’ve been guiltily doing totally paid off. I am so, so thankful to you for that, you can’t imagine.
- We bought a flat! Having a place of our own has been such a blessing – it’s been a place to recover and heal and figure out who we are. One thing I do regret though, is that even now I haven’t quite… made it a home. I’m working on it.
- We got depressed again! Yeah, I’m pretty sure you’re depressed right now. Surprise! And… after all of the life-changing, world-expanding things that happen, depression strikes again. And we work our way through it, as you’ll do in the coming months and years. I think… a lot of it is a sort of grief, a sense of hopelessness at the realities of existence. We eventually work through it. Alan Watts helps.
- We left the job! We spent a good 5.5 years there and it was easily the best environment we’d ever been in. Working there was a challenging, enriching experience and we levelled up tremendously on all fronts while we were at it. But eventually we’d feel a longing to do something different, and you shouldn’t leave your longings unattended.
- We have over 10,000 Twitter followers now! (You don’t even get a Twitter account until you’re 18…) We’d spend a bunch of time on Quora (receiving “You’re a Quora Top Writer!” in the mail will be something that moves you deeply), on Reddit, on Facebook… but it’ll be on Twitter that you finally find a medium that’s well-suited to the way your brain works.
Each one of those things has been life-changing. And none of that is what I want to talk to you about today. I want to talk to you very specifically about my trip to San Francisco!