About
Why I Started Dear Future Self
I once trained to be a postal carrier. What I cherished was the look on a person's face when they pulled a real letter out of an otherwise empty mailbox. People who hadn't gotten anything but bills in months would stand on their front step and read it twice. I'd be three houses down before they'd finished with a smile on their faces.
Those smiles fueled my love for mail clubs.
The future-self part came from ADHD. My executive function works in flickers, not sustained beams: the plans I made on Monday rarely survived Tuesday. The person I'd be six months out, the one who'd have to live with the decisions I made today, felt like a stranger I owed nothing to. I made decisions for today-me every time, because today-me was the only me I actually knew.
The simplest way to fix that, it turned out, was to write her letters. I'd mail them to my post office box, and a little surprise would be waiting for me when I picked up my mail the next month. Slowly, letter by letter, my future-self stranger became someone I knew, someone I cared for, someone I made better decisions for.
Dear Future Self Mail Club is built on that loop. You write something small to your future self each Sunday. Once a month, an envelope lands in your mailbox: your own past words returned, with a little time and distance attached.
If you're not kind to yourself, who will be?
Your friend and fellow letter lover,
K. Larkin 💌
K. Larkin lives in a small RV with a piano, a chihuahua, and a Great Pyrenees. She writes from the wild.
Your first letter · $12.99/mo · cancel anytime
Why Physical Letters
Because paper slows you down.
You read it once. You read it again. You tuck it somewhere safe.
Because screens disappear.
Your reflections deserve a place you can hold in your hands.
Because you forget.
And the point of this is to remember.
Who This Is For
People who give kindness to everyone but themselves.
The letters arrive in your own handwriting. Put your oxygen mask on first! We need to be kind to ourselves so we can better take care of those we love. You deserve kindness, too!
Anyone in a season of change.
Weddings, babies, grief, moves, new jobs: a year from now, you’ll want these letters.
People whose attention runs in flickers.
When executive function is uneven, your future self feels especially far away. The letters make your future self real, a little at a time.