Dear Future Self,

The next time

you reach for martini #3,

remember the night

you rode home drunk on the train

and threw up in your purse.

And Future Self,

The next time

you have expectations,

remember all the nights

you waited alone,

and the words that hung in your imagination,

longed for but never said.

Please Future Self,

Eat your vegetables.

Walk a lot, moisturize,

and do all those things your parents and grandparents

told you to do but never did themselves.

Oh- and Future Self, one more thing:

The next time

you have the opportunity to take a chance--

to dance or not dance, love or not love,

leap or not leap--

remember the saddest words in the English language are

If only...

And then boogie away,

open your heart,

and leap with abandon into the unknown.

Do it for your Future Self.

Love,

Your present self.

Next Chapter: A Taxonomy of Reasons to Get Up in the Morning