It was well past the stroke of midnight.  My room had been turned upside down, and I was ready to cry in frustration. How could I have lost a letter I’ve been waiting for 15 years to open?  A letter from one person who would never forgive me if I never read it – a letter from 15 year old self.  It was 2:30am on October 23, 2013, and my 30th Birthday was already turning into a disaster.

Letter From My 15 Year Old Self

Fifteen years prior, I had watched an episode of Northern Exposure in which one of the main characters, Maggie, receives a letter from her 15 year old self on her 30th birthday.  She is then haunted by her 15 year old self while she comes to terms with who she is, who she was, and who she is becoming.  I watched that episode on the last day of my 15th year.  I was inspired!  And I had little time to lose.  That night after my family had gone to sleep I got back up out of bed and spent a few hours composing this letter to myself.  I poured out my soul, instilling every ounce of my being in that letter, intuitively knowing that it would be so needed in 15 years. Flash back to the wee early hours of my 30th Birthday.  The letter was nowhere to be found.  But sitting around feeling devastated would get me no where.  There was only one course left to take.  Fervent prayers were answered.  Inspiration struck.  I remembered a 15 year old external hard drive that might contain a digital copy of the letter – the next best thing to the physical signed copy.  And there it was.  Right where I left it untouched by time for 15 years.  I printed it out and started to read as the tears flowed down…

To: Lauren Drew Soffer

(This letter is not to be opened until October 23, 2013.)

Lauren 15 Years Old

Dear Lauren,

It has probably been quite some time since you have heard from me, at least fifteen years to be exact.  I just thought that you might want to hear from your fifteen-year-old self now that you are twice as old.

I try to imagine what you will be doing in your life right now.  If we are anything alike then you are most likely taking a break from your incredibly busy life and something really important that you are suppose to be doing in order to read this letter.  So where are you?  Did you become a famous actress?  Did you write a brilliant screenplay?   Are you directing great movies?  Or did you do something completely different?

Have you changed a lot in fifteen years?  Are you closer to that idea person I am now working so hard to become?  Do you still dream all of the time?  I hope so.  I love to dream.  You remember that, don’t you?  I love to occupy my hours with imaginary alternate realities of my life, present in future.  Did you ever go on the Rosie O’Donnell Show like you so often dreamed?  Did you ever meet Gillian Anderson?  Well, it doesn’t really matter.  My dreamtime is only a few steps above childish fantasies.

Well, enough with the questions I can’t get answers to.  I will remind you a little bit of a little bit about me.  Aside from school where, in my junior year, I am taking one honors and two AP classes, I am involved with a few (ha ha) extracurricular activities.  I am the first alternate for Varsity Tennis, I really wanted to be one of the nine players on Varsity, but my serve isn’t ready yet.  Next year.  I hope that by the time you read this letter, you can really serve the pants off people, or at least have a good serve.  Right now I am working on a Comedy Scene for the Drama Festival with Johanna Fair, Jeff Newman, Jeremy Nation, and George something or other.  Jackie Luttrel is directing.  We are doing the last scene from Play It Again, Sam by Woody Allen.  Now that will be an old movie when you read this.  Which reminds me, do they still have videotapes, audiotapes, and CD’s?  Probably not.  Anyway, I just tried out for our Senior Produced Winter Drama that is Love, Sex, and the IRS.  I don’t think that I did that well.  Only you know if I will get a part.  I am also going to do Psychodrama for Advanced Peer Counseling, which is another thing I am doing.  I love it.  We went on out retreat together up to JCA Shalom, and it was one of the best experiences I had in a long time.  I am on the grant writing committee for PC as well.  Let’s see, there is also Comedy Sportz.  It is one of the best things in my schedule.  It is just so much fun, and I always look forward to it.  I also am training Beginning Peer Councilors, going to Film Club (when it doesn’t interfere with writing the PC grant), and going to drama club.  I believe that brings me to the last but not least thing on my plate, my job at temple as an assistant teacher.  I have a second grade class this year, and I enjoy everything about it but getting up early on Sunday mornings.  I’m pretty busy for a fifteen year old, huh?  I am a little stressed over it all right now, but I enjoy doing everything so much I can’t give anything up.

So, that’s what I’m doing.  Now, onto what I am like.  I believe in believing.  I like to think that there is still a lot in this world worth believing in.  And, if the whole world keeps on believing, there will always be hope for the future.  That’s another thing.  I know that the young people are our future.  That is why I love my job where I get to be a part of making the future.  I believe that there is no greater gift you can bestow than your love.  I try to give my love everyday.  I’m not perfect yet, but I’m working on it.  My goal is to be a person who never runs out of love to give and who is a strength and a model for those trying to be better people.  And, I don’t think that my progress is going so badly.  My best friend, Leslie, tells me that I am her strength.  Basically all of my beliefs can be summed up in my goal for life:  Before I die, I want to leave a lasting and positive impact, I want to make a difference to at least one person,  I want to leave the world a little bit better than when I entered it, and I want to be a living example of love and kindness.  That brings me to what I want to do with the rest of my life.  I think that I am best suited to fully that goal by doing something in the entertainment industry.  I think that I can really make a difference to a large number of people though work in that field.  I want to act, I want to write screenplays, I want to direct, and I might want to produce (funny how my I-Search that I am working on for English is on this very topic).

Here are my other interests.  In the area of television, these I the shows I watch:  I watch X-Files religiously and consider myself a devoted X-Phile, I am addicted to the Simpsons (a highly intelligent and brilliant satire of society which also happens to be a hysterical cartoon), I am almost completely hooked on Ally McBeal,  and I enjoy watching Inside Actor’s Studio.  I must also make a note to a show I always love to see and without I wouldn’t be righting this letter right now:  Northern Exposure.  There was this one episode where in a flashback to 15 years earlier Maggie writes a letter to herself in thirty years.  In the present, Maggie gets a hold of the letter and a whole thing plays out, but that isn’t the important part.  The important thing is that I got the idea for writing this letter from the show.  There are also an endless number of movies I love.  One of my very favorites is The Princess Bride.  But there are so many others I adore that I couldn’t name them all or I’d be here forever, however, for a dramatic piece, I liked the Piano, for a comical piece I like Forget Paris, and for one that just sticks out in my mind as being really good, I enjoyed Fried Green Tomatoes.  Some of my favorite books include The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx, Exodus by Leon Uris, and The Dune Chronicles by Frank Herbert.

My social life is as follows:  My two best friends are Leslie Klein and Jackie Luttrel.  I am closer with Leslie, but we also go through more rough spots, like the one right now, for example.  I should also mention that we went to Spain together this past summer, I’m sure you didn’t forget that.  I love them both to death though.  I don’t know how I would possibly get through my high school life without them constantly being there for me, mostly to just let me vent.  We understand each other in a very special way.  They are what real friends are, or at least are the closest things to it that I have ever experienced.  I also hand out with a lot of more casual, mostly drama friends.  There is Johanna Fair, Blair Anderson, Jessica Yuda, Lauren Hubert, Tarren Polack, Shelby Schulman, Miriam Krikorian, and Brittany Stabile.  I have especially been getting closer to Johanna lately because of Peer Counseling and the Drama Festival Scene.

Well, I guess that just about wraps it up for now.  But I do want you to remember a few things.  Lauren, you are an amazingly strong person.  You have the power to change things in your life.  Never feel like you have to settle.  Remember the wisdom of the car commercial:  “If everything were just good enough, would anything ever really be good enough?”  Never loose hope, never stop dreaming, and never loose sight of those dreams.  Don’t be afraid to make your dreams a reality.  You are an incredibly talented person.  You can do anything.  “If you think it, want it, dream it, then it’s real.  You are what you feel.”  Never forget that Matt Kaplan always believed you could make it as an actress.  Remember to remember what is really important in life, what makes life worth living, and place that thing above all else.  Remember to spread light and to give and receive love openly.  If you have forgotten any of this in the past fifteen years, then remember that it is never to late to change.  Don’t forget the road less traveled by, it can make all the difference.  Remember that, as Abraham Lincoln said, “People are just about as happy as they make up their mind to be.”  And finally remember the great Dr. Seuss’s words from Oh, The Places You’ll Go,

“So be sure when you step
Step with care and great tact
And remember that life’s
A Great Balancing Act
And will you succeed?
Yes! You will indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed)
Kid, you’ll move mountains.”

 

Lots of love,

Lauren Soffer

 (Fifteen Years Old)
October 22, 1999

When I finished reading the letter, I went right back to the beginning and read it again.  Crying all the way though.  It was so full of hope.  So full of love.  So full of excitement.  So full of confidence.  So full of wisdom, especially for a 15 year old.

Lots of things stood out to me.  For instance, I did meet Gillian Anderson and I did get the part in Love, Sex, and the IRS.  But what stood out to me the most was the last paragraph containing advice.  It was wise beyond years and exactly what I’ve been needing to hear.  In fact the one line that  most stood out to me was, “If you have forgotten any of this in the past fifteen years, then remember that it is never to late to change.”  That hit me really hard.  And I have forgotten some of the qualities I had at 15.  Namely that level of confidence I once had.  I want that back.  And as I said, It’ s never too late to change.

The only thing I have left to do is write another letter to my 45 year old self, but this time I need to find a way to hide somewhere more obvious.  No need to go through all that stress on my 45th birthday again.  Until then, I have mountains to move!

Lauren At Her 30th Birthday