Explain your current situation to your five-years-ago self.

Frank Ocean did it. read it. loved it.
Then my friend Jackie Betty did it. read it. loved it.
damnit, it made me want to do my own. I tried to briefly sum mine up to be the same length as theirs, but I got a little carried away recapping the last 5 years. fuck it.

If you don't care to read much and aren't familiar with this blog response, skim through Frank Ocean's to see how I wrote mine. But really you should read all three, cause even though you can't tell the depth, Jackie's is pretty inspiring too. Mines not really inspiring at all.

Anyways: Frank. Jackie. Morgan.
wow. alrite. i’ll give it a shot…

hey chris,

your name is frank now..it’s a long story. your girlfriend is about to break up with you because of the long distance. it’s ok. & that job you’re working..well, you’re gonna have to work there for another year and some months.. & then you’re gonna get fired. you’re gonna work a couple more jobs after that too. nothing glamorous. kinkos and at&t if you really want the specifics. but you’re never gonna be homeless or starving. don’t worry you won’t fail and have to move back to new orleans either. you are gonna get your heartbroken though. twice. if it helps, the first one is gonna be worse than the second. contrary to how it feels, it won’t kill you. in fact it’s gonna help you write an album. yea, you finally finished an album. people like it man. you’re actually gonna write and record hundreds of songs. they won’t all be good and most ppl won’t think you’re talented at first, but you’re going to master your gifts. you’re going to become a lot stronger and wiser..even a little taller. be patient. i mean, you kind of have no choice. and be good to people. i don’t wanna spoil too much for you, but.. you’re on a plane right now to the east coast to work with kanye west & jay-z. it’s all working out kid. you made it.


My turn….

hey jackilina

that’s what you call yourself. Well that’s gunna change, you’ll end up shortening it to jackie and elizabeth to betty. They call you jackie betty now. the relationship your in is going to be a long one. you think it’s gunna last forever but its not. your heart breaks and it’ll hurt a lot, for a long time too, but eventually you’ll get over it, and move on. congratulations, you completed the easiest part of your life, you graduated high school. but times are going to get pretty tough when you almost die in a car accident. it’s okay you don’t. you’ll be on bed rest for a few months, but don’t worry, it was worth it. it made you wake up. you’re gunna realize that working at the pharmacy isn’t where you want to be anymore. you want to travel, learn, pursue your dreams. so you’ll quit that job, lose a couple friends, fight with a couple family members. then, you’ll go to toronto, phoenix, austin, las vegas, dallas, houston, san antonio, chicago, los angeles, san diego, new york, philadelphia and miami all in one year. living here and there and all over the place. but it’s amazing how many new people you’ve met, the things you’ve been able to do and see, the offices you always wanted to sit in, well, you’ll finally be having meetings there. you’ll make some new best friends, fall in love, again, and your heart will break one more time when it doesn’t work out. but it’s alright. cause you’ll get over it, move on, and keep working hard as hell to make all your dreams come true. you’re on the right path gurl. keep going..


You’ve always went by Morgan, but your name will have a different ring to it later.

You’re supposed to be all cool because you capital on the latest sneakers, the coolest/weakest trends, and your Myspace friend count. You’re not as cool as you think you are, but the fact that you stay humble yet confident is a persistent quality that makes you cool again. You made a decision the year before to not pursue basketball in college and you’ll stick with it, even though you could have went D1. You’ll keep playing because you love the sport. You’ll get into dramatic fights with your friends. You’ll slowly start to separate yourself away from people and gravitate towards one. You’ll build an intensely strong friendship with this person; and to no surprise, the one you always sensed a connection with. This friendship is dangerous and captivating. You’ll whirlwind from the most blissful fulfillment you can soak in, to the darkest times of your life. It’ll fluctuate back and forth like this for the next 5 years. This friendship will end, which is a good, but highlight the good times cause you’ll revisit them later. You won’t have a high school sweetheart; scratch that off your list. Even so, you’ll think you’ve had a fair shot at love-but not entirely. You won’t be ready, consequently, ‘cause of your own foolish bodily insecurities. This will repeatedly get in the way for many years to come. When you go off to college, you’ll meet the boy of your dreams. You’ll fuck it up and be sick over it, but then you’ll fix it. You would have loved him, but you got out before things got too heavy. You’ll transfer schools and it definitely won’t be what you expected. You’ll make a handful of friends, but needless to say 18 months later, you will still be a permanent outsider. You’re increasingly becoming more socially awkward, but I really wouldn’t suggest for you to do anything different. Shit just be like that sometimes. Meanwhile, you’ll bounce between jobs working mostly in retail. You’ll associate yourself with tons of the right people in different cities (including a clothing line you’ll become apart of.) who will better your connections with even more important people. You’ll be fortunate enough to experience things that will sound too good to be true as well as incredible opportunities not usually instilled with people your age. You'll talk about these things and other interests on your blog and people will love it. a lot more than you would've thought they would. You’ll date two more very nice young men. You’ll like one of them more than you want to. You’re going to slowly start removing yourself from your family starting with your sister. It’s okay; you didn’t like her much anyways. You kind of tossed religion out the window in high school, but your morals will loosen up even more. You have refrained from drinking and smoking for so long.. it didn’t go to waste, but you’ll start. And it will become casual. You can’t be reminded enough that College is not high school and doing the bare minimum to get by on grades isn’t practical. It’ll take you awhile to figure that out.

The best thing about you is that you don’t lose sight of yourself. Your intentions are always well; I thoroughly believe you are a good person and a lot of people think that too. Approaching the present day, you’re about to endure a very shameful and challenging time of your life. You were always good at recognizing life’s lessons and this time you’re taking notes. A lot of people will doubt you and for the time being, you’ve proven them right. But you and I both know how this story ends. By any means necessary, you will finish school. And be successful. And own nice things. And have at a legitimate relationship. And be happy. Give it time. Keep swimming, baby girl.
I love you.