A Letter from the Future
By Ezequiel Bravo Jacinto
Editor’s Note: Ezequiel wrote this essay during his senior year at Institutio Lizardi in Zihuatanejo, Guerrero. He participated in the 2020 International Youth Essay Contest sponsored by the Goi Peace Foundation of Japan. The theme was, “A Letter from Myself in 2030.” Ezequiel submitted his entry in the competition in Spanish but wrote the following for English readers. He was 18 years old when he authored this. Can your 18-year-old write this well, much less in another language? WOW!
My Letter from the Future: Fragile Times, The Years of Change
Dear Ezequiel of today,
I send you this letter from the deepest part of me, to the one who comes to be my past, my present, and my future. Ten years have passed between the present of my letter and the present which you receive it. Being already 2030, the great year promised, discussed, and described in countless papers and official documents of the highest order.
It is sad the way in which, a year so honored with the word “progress,” branded as being our date of the change to mourn all malice that we have done, as a whole race, and as a single people. Don’t worry, I am saying this because of the way in which people still look into each other eyes and reject their deepest nature of harmony without difference of skin, cult, or race. Even submerged in such a dark grave, while in the distance, through the stars we have achieved the unprecedented conquest of space with the arrival of man on the red planet.
The world continues to seek the voice of struggle, to confront its terrible nature when the consequences of our urban planning actions, have caused more losses in nature than we will be able to reconstruct. Even the political friction has changed, and Mexico, unfortunately, continues to fail in finding the change it has yearned for so much since the end of its golden era in the 70s. It even seems that the new generations will be the ones to clean up our mess and continue toward a better world thanks to their innocence, creativity, and open mindset.
The powers changed only from hand to hand, but the outrage remains the same. That the old rivalries will never cease, even if still having more than half the world is submerged in hunger, misery, poverty, death…
With so much sad news you have to think of my present as a future nightmare with such disappointing events, as far as seeking to not be part of it, but I must say that people with a noble heart and clear conscience continue to strive to leave behind the hardships of the past to consolidate in an era that allows us to visualize actual change, peace, and progress, where the utopian and the fantasy of all beautiful literature may become real.
If you ask yourself: What about the others, the vast majority?… Several times one seeks to solve the problems of the many, help them and give them the pleasure that they can continue to be in an environment in which we all want to be part. But unfortunately, it is not very different from the present you already know, there are so many missing words to express the bad fortune of those who do not have the same opportunities that you possess and that I currently possess. Keep it in mind in the deepest part of your being: “there is always time, resources, and memories to share with the people who need it”.
I have to tell you some personal things, related to your goals… Some have been achieved, at the price of so many nights without sleep, stress, and constancy of your actions. Research, development, and seeking for knowledge projects, as well as solutions for a greater life, have not become a thing of dreams, but of a reality that does not stop growing.
I am still faithful to those compliments that you still must conclude. These have brought me to an inner development that I gladly share with others such experiences, as it is the struggle for social progress. I want to tell you that despite the social situation that exists in your time and in mine, do not stop studying, as for me I will continue onwards… setting aside what is necessary for our other self from the future to come…
I implore to our younger heart, do not lose hope, that in there lies the reason to venture into change, which you will achieve through valid actions, and with humble things that come from you, may develop something much more human. Take into account the thoughts of others, or the other, be patient in speech as well as in listening, and take into account the basic principles of Neurolinguistics: body, mind, and soul; From which it may prevent your noble person from being consumed by anger, greed, and power.
Sincerely,
Ezequiel from the future