At Type Camp Australia just over a year ago, we all wrote letters to ourselves for 12 months in the future. I wish this idea was mine, but it isn’t. It’s from when my (wonderful) Girl Scout Troop did Outward Bound in North Carolina in 1990, the summer after high school graduation and before we all went to college. That letter was only for 6 months away, but it was perfectly poignant.
A few days ago, I sent off everyone’s letters from that Australia camp – I never read them of course! I opened and read my own today. Surprisingly, it seems to communicate nearly everything that I’m trying to achieve with Type Camp. Although not entirely obvious, it actually says a lot about my time in Melbourne with everyone. It was a great camp with fantastic people and really helped to solidify just where the business was going (I had been considering packing it all in up until then!).
For all of you, perhaps what I was telling my future self, which has become my present self, might just work for you, too?
Please remember that hard work pays off for
there are good people around that appreciate it.
Be yourself, you’re fine the way you are.
Know that what you do is important.
Let other people help you.
Laugh, laugh, laugh.
So work hard, because it matters, and laugh, because that matters, too.
Agreed. Type Camp was one of the toughest things I’ve done, mostly because of the limits and expectations I put on myself, but the experience was wonderful. Please persist in making these camps happen. Have you heard the story of the man on the beach filled with starfish? It’s a bit kitsch, but I think sums up the effect Type camp had on me.
I’m glad you enjoyed the experience. It can be difficult to challenge yourself, but it always makes you a better person in the end. I’m glad that you stuck with it and did your best, for that’s all that matters!
(And I don’t know the ‘starfish’ story. Do tell!)
I can’t remember what my letter said. Did I even write one? Gues I’ll find out soon…