Creative Writing Challenge 2.5 - Memories of the Present

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Dear Grandchildren,

I'm Evie, your grandmother. I know what you are thinking about :) I'm that young, because I'm recording this in 2017 and I'm only 25. Cool, isn't it? :)

At the moment of watching this video you might be already 10 years old or older. I don't know your names, how you look like, and the strange thing is that I don't even know if you exist.

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Nor do I know what the world will be like when you’re born. All I can say for certain is that things are quickly changing around me, and none of us can predict the future. We can only try to shape it into what we want to see.

So, let me tell you about life in 2017.

A lot of people are afraid. What we call anxiety is not a surge of emotion that raises its head in the midst of an important project. It’s a constant state of mind that we’ve claimed as a personality trait, internalized and made our own.

As I record this, the earth is passing through a rough season. Terrible storms have claimed hundreds if not thousands of lives, and we see photos of whole cities decimated by hurricanes and earthquakes. We’re living with the threat of nuclear war. Maybe we don’t believe it will really happen, but the potential is there.

We scroll past these headlines and we find it hard to breathe. That’s not just the anxiety - our air is getting really bad. In China, people are wearing masks to purify pollution. Los Angeles might not be far behind. We stay inside, because we can have anything we want delivered to our door.

It’s also safer inside these days. Riots and protests fill American streets, and in Europe, groups of psychopaths called terrorists have started to attack civilians. Every story we see adds another layer to the cloud of fear pressing down on us, so we rest when we can in the tiny units we rent, and we entertain ourselves with distractions.

This probably sounds horrible to you. Sweet children, whoever you are, I hope this sounds horrible to you. I hope this sounds like such a foreign nightmare that you could never imagine going back to such a primitive time, because as your grandmother, I want the best for you.

But you know most of these things already, don’t you? I’m sure your history books will tell you about the disasters, the politics, the technology, the names and dates and places that were large enough to be immortalized in text.

You need to hear about the small things. These tiny thoughts that will be washed away like grains of sand swept up in the current of the times are my gift to you, the answer for when you start to question what life was really like back then.

The truth is, my life is wonderful! I know, after all of the things I just told you, this must sound strange. The world is falling apart around me and I’m smiling into the camera, hoping you can feel what’s in my heart.

I feel optimistic. I told you earlier that times are changing, and I'm excited to be a part of that change. I just finished school with a degree in journalism, and this tiny room you see around me is my office.

In the middle of all of this chaos, the old news empires are cracking and making room for independent media to be reborn. This is my first journalistic piece! Of course, I’m going to keep this one private, I’ll share it with you later, but the next one won’t be hidden away.

Someday, I hope you’ll see all of my videos. I hope you’ll see me travel the world and capture what I find on this little screen, shining light into darkness, because I do have faith in the future I want to pass down to you.

I’m wondering what you’ll be like now. What your hopes and dreams will be. I hope that they’re beautiful, and I will do whatever I can to help you follow them.

I haven’t met your grandfather yet, but I promise he will be a good man. Like I said, I only want the best for you. But there’s still time for that. I need to find my own place before I find someone to share it with.

Now, my darling grandchildren, I am going to do just that. When I see you later, I’ll be an old woman, probably baking you cookies and telling you stories about my life.

This story is for you. It’s the story of my love for you, from the past, toward the future, into the present where you’re watching it now.

Always. I love you.

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Written for Task #5 of the Second Creative Writing Challenge run by @steemfluencer!

The bolded beginning was the prompt, the rest was the challenge!

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