Skyping my future self

The bell rang and the teacher still went on with his lecture. It was break time; the girls were annoyed and kept screaming at him to end his class. He finished the topic and left the class. They all yawned and lazily moved around the class to talk to their friends. It was second break and they had nothing left to eat. One good soul took out a biscuit packet from her bag and they all hogged on it. They sat around as a group and started their daily discussion about life. They were talking about skyping their relatives. Emily had no idea of what Skype was and one of her friends introduced her to the app called Skype. You can video call anyone if you had internet. She went back home and downloaded it on her brother’s smartphone.

Her parents went out for shopping and she was curious to use it. She took his phone and created her account. Emily messaged her old friend who had moved away to come online. While she was waiting, a call came. It was an unknown number. Emily knew not to pick up such calls and she ignored it but she wondered if it was her friend. Curiosity got the best out of her and she picked the call.
Emily paled looking at the screen because there was a girl who looked like the older version of herself. The other girl waved at her and said hello. Her voice was mature and Emily guessed she might be in her early twenties.
“Hello, baby Emily! I’m Emily and I’m skyping you from the future. Ten years later you’ll look like this” Emily said pointing to herself.

Baby Emily was so confused and didn’t know what to say. She replied, “Hello Emily from the future! Nice to meet you!”

A lot of questions ran through her head and she wanted to ask them all. This is how their conversation went.

“I have a lot of questions to ask,” both of them said at the same time.

EFF: You go first!

Emily: How does it feel to be old?

EFF: I’m 25 and I don’t consider myself as old. But, I wish I can go back to my childhood and lead a carefree life rather than running errands all the time.

Emily: So, you want to be like me?

EFF: Yes, that’s why I contacted you. My turn now! How does it feel to be young?

Emily (sulking): Life is so hard. I want to grow up already. Everyone treats me like a kid.

EFF (laughing): You are a kid, Emily. Be happy as you can do a lot of things when you are young. Don’t miss out on anything.

Emily (thoughtful): So life will suck when I’m 25? That’s not a very happy thing to hear, you know. Tell me what you do for a living.

EFF: I can’t say life sucks, but you’ll go through a lot. I run a weekly magazine called The Mag. It was difficult setting it up. However, it’s running smoothly right now.

Emily: Never heard of it. So I’m going to run a magazine? That is such a drag. I like science and math.

EFF: Nothing has changed then. I thought that was my future until I found out I was interested in English as well. How’s your crush?

Emily: Wait, what? How do you know about him?

EFF: You’re the younger version of me. I went through the same phase. I thought things might’ve changed though.

Emily: Same thing! I don’t know what to ask.

EFF: You’ll have a lot of fun and face many ups and downs in life Em. Don’t let any of that get to you. You won’t be the best at everything, so find that one thing and be the best at it.

Emily: I think I’d rather stay young. You sound like an aunty. (Giggles)

EFF: Have fun slapping and kicking everyone. I’m sure your class has plans for that.

Emily: Yes, we’re really excited for that. For Christmas, one girl dressed up like Santa Claus and we got scolded for that.

EFF: That classroom was the best. We had so much fun staying in that block for a year.

Emily: Totally! Ok, got to go. Amma is here.

EFF: Bye.

Emily took a screenshot of the video call before the screen went off. She closed the app and ran to her room before her mom entered. Emily couldn’t wait to go to school the next day and tell her friends all about the Skype call. She was happy she knew what was going to happen in the future. But, she was still confused if she should follow her dreams or go with the flow and wait for a miracle.