Dear future Maddy,

Hey! Long time no see. How are you? I’m finally adjusted to college life and not missing home as much. Do you still miss home as often as we used to? I would hope that by the time I’m a senior, I’ll have my set place here at Longwood. I’m a member of a few things, but I hope I find where I really fit in.

I have a few questions for you. Are you still on the club field hockey team? Are you still interested in joining a sorority with Sienna? How was the Yellowstone trip we’re taking? Do you have the same friends as freshman year – Faith, Sienna, Payton, Sydney, and Issy? Is life better than it was this year? Does it ever get easier to leave home? Sorry, I know that’s a lot but I really like Longwood, so I’m hoping it just gets better from here!

I’ve learned a lot about myself this year. First, I learned that it’s a lot harder to be away from home than I thought. On the bright side, I’m closer to Marianne’s, so I go to see her a lot. Secondly, I learned that everyone who says you drift away from your old friends in college clearly don’t have good enough friends. I’m still best friends with Summer, Autumn, Allison, and, of course, Emily. (Does that stay true? I hope it does. I wonder where we’ll all be in 2022?) I already knew this lesson, but this year just taught me even more – You don’t always get everything you want, even if you work hard for it. Sometimes people are mean, situations are unfair, and you’re left trying to make sense of it all. That happened to me a few times this year, but I’m sure this will all help me grow in some way. Lastly, I learned that it’s okay to take care of yourself. I’m always so focused on making other people happy, that I usually don’t listen to what I need, like sleep, self-care, etc. It’s a process, but I’m learning that it’s okay for me to just rest. Faith is helping me a lot with this (and so are quick cat naps). I hope I keep getting better at this as I get older. I also hope that I keep learning new things about myself. I’ve got 3 more years to do it!

I hope you keep your friends really close – whether that’s your high school friends, your college friends, or new friends that you’re gonna make eventually. I hope you don’t stop working hard – whether that’s to get into a sorority, into ambassadors, in class, etc. I hope you stay close to God and don’t lose sight of that part of your life. I hope you don’t lose your positivity and kindness that so many people have complimented you on. I hope you get to do some more cool things through Longwood. And mostly, I hope when you look back on this as a senior, that your life is even better. I hope we both continue to grow and love this school. You are super lucky to be here and I hope we never forget that.

I’m so excited to see all that I’ll have done when I look back on this letter! I hope my life is better and that it gets easier. If it doesn’t, I hope I leaned ways to handle it better. Future me, we will accomplish our goals. We will make awesome friends. We will have as much fun as possible in these 4 years here. I wish you all the best and I’ll be seeing you soon.

Love, Maddy Carr – Freshman 2019