"Did you ever kiss a girl?" she asked
A conversation with my younger self
It was a sunny morning when I took a seat by the window. I was a few minutes early.
She rushed in fifteen minutes later, seeming a bit frantic about keeping me waiting. Her hair and make-up were perfect. Mine were not.
She loaded her coffee with cream and sugar and lit a cigarette (this is an imaginary conversation so cigarettes are allowed), I sipped my oat milk latte, watching her with curiosity and a bit of alarm.
(This is a story about meeting my younger self. It’s not an original idea, yet the questions and ideas are all ours, mine and hers. I began thinking about what we would say to each other after coming across a similar story online — sorry I have no attribution for the original essay as it’s been circulating in various forms for years. I’ve found it an interesting exercise to see the conversation through, imagining it happening. Perhaps you would like to try it and see what would happen if you had coffee with your younger self.)
