How to Earth same world · other eyes
How to Earth

Through the eyes of Your Future Self.

56 everyday things, re-seen by your future self.

Your Future Self Out in the world

a baby shower

You are annoyed that the games are silly.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a Berlin techno rave

The thump is not in your ears.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a Black Friday sale

You are standing in the parking lot at 5 a.m., breath fogging, clutching a folded flyer, and I want you to know something: you look wonderful.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a christmas dinner

You are annoyed that the potatoes came out too soft.

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Your Future Self Kitchen

a coffee mug

You are annoyed at this mug right now.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a doomsday prepper bunker

You built a room to survive the end of the world, and I want to tell you: the world doesn't end.

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Your Future Self Home

a doorbell

The camera one, by the front door.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a first date

You are sitting on the wrong side of the table, angling yourself toward the door, and you keep touching the stem of the water glass because you don't…

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a funeral

You are standing at the back because you got there late, and you are worried about that.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a furry convention

You are so worried, right now, that someone from work will see the photos.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a goodbye at the airport gate

You are already gone in your head, aren't you.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a grandmother's kitchen

You are standing at the counter, waiting for her to find the good knife, and you are a little bored.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a group project meeting

You are watching the little clock in the corner of the screen more than the faces, and I understand why, but oh, I wish you'd look up.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a gym in January

The barbells are still cold in your hands.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a gym mirror selfie

You are doing the thing you will laugh about later: holding the phone at that exact angle, one foot back, chin down, waiting for the machines behind…

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a haunted house

You paid actual money to be frightened, and I want you to know: it works.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a hospital waiting room

The chairs are the color of nothing, and you hate them.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a house party at 3am

The music is quieter now, whatever's still playing.

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Your Future Self Home

a houseplant

You water it wrong.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a job interview

You are early.

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Your Future Self Home

a laundry basket

You are carrying it wrong, the way you always carry it, balanced on one hip with your chin holding down the top so nothing spills, walking sideways…

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Your Future Self Kitchen

a microwave

You are standing in front of it at 11:40 at night, watching the plate turn, waiting on the leftover noodles you told yourself you shouldn't eat.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a middle school dance

The gym still smells like floor polish and the inside of a balloon.

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Your Future Self Home

a mirror

You are leaning close to it right now, aren't you.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a music festival

Look at you, pressing your phone flat against the sky with fifty thousand other arms, all of you filming the same three minutes you will never once…

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a nightclub bathroom queue

Look at you, twenty-something, wedged in that hallway between the coat check and the toilets, phone at four percent, bass thudding through the wall…

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Your Future Self On you

a pair of shoes

You wore those out.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a park bench

You are sitting on the green slats near the playground, the paint peeling in that one spot under your left thigh where everyone's hands have worn it…

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a parking lot

You are annoyed right now.

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Your Future Self Kitchen

a refrigerator

You are standing in front of it again, the door open, the cold light on your face, staring into a full shelf and announcing there is nothing to eat.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a revolving door

You are pushing on the wrong panel again.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a séance

You are all crowded around the little table, holding hands, and the girl who owns the good candles keeps whispering for everyone to be serious.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a self-checkout machine

You are standing at the little kiosk again, scanning your own groceries, jaw tight because the scale says there's an unexpected item in the bagging…

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Your Future Self On you

a set of keys

You are fishing them out of your pocket again, that little brass weight, thumbing past the round-headed one to the square one without even looking.

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Your Future Self On you

a shopping receipt

You are annoyed by it, the way it curls out of the machine longer than the meal itself, the way it snags in your pocket and comes out later a soft gray…

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Your Future Self Home

a shower

You are standing under the water longer than you need to, and I am so glad.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a silent disco

You are laughing at nothing.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a spin class

You will be embarrassed, later, that you spent so long resenting this.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a TikTok live stream

You are lying sideways on the couch, phone propped against a cushion, watching a stranger fold laundry to an audience of four thousand.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a traffic jam

You are drumming your fingers on the wheel again, watching the brake lights ahead pulse red, then die, then flare, then die.

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Your Future Self Kitchen

a vending machine

You are standing in front of the vending machine at 2 p.m., annoyed, because the bag of chips has jammed against the glass and refuses to drop.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a voicemail from someone gone

You keep meaning to move it.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a wedding

You are so worried about the seating chart.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a work call on mute

You are on mute again.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

a yoga retreat

You booked it in a panic, if you remember.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

an airport at 5am

The row of plastic chairs, the ones bolted together with the metal armrests you can't lift, so you can't lie down.

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Your Future Self Home

an alarm clock

You will hate it every morning.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

an elevator

You stand there watching the numbers light up one at a time, willing them faster, actually annoyed that it is stopping on four.

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Your Future Self On you

an umbrella

You are fighting with it again.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

doomscrolling at 2am

The blue light is on your face again, and I remember this exact ceiling.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

getting left on read

You are looking at the little word again.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

holding a newborn

You are terrified you are doing it wrong.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

moving out of a childhood bedroom

You are sitting on the floor because the bed is already disassembled, leaning against the wall, and there is a rectangle on the carpet where it stood…

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Your Future Self Out in the world

sitting with a pet at the vet

You are folding and unfolding the appointment reminder in your lap, the paper going soft at the creases, and the cat carrier is pressed against your…

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Your Future Self Out in the world

the first night in an empty apartment

You are sitting on the floor because the couch does not exist yet.

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Your Future Self Out in the world

the last day at a job you loved

You clear out your desk drawer and you are annoyed.

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