You very rarely encounter a senior who would take life advice from someone four grades younger than them. But what if that advice was coming from your former self? Danny Inscoe, who formerly taught at Wakefield Middle School before taking a position at the high school makes it possible for this to happen–without any time machines.

“My goal was for my eighth graders to write their future selves a letter, including what they hope they had succeeded or achieved in the future,” said Healthful Living teacher Danny Inscoe. “They self-addressed [envelopes] and bought a stamp so I could mail it back to them in two or three years.”

Inscoe started this letting-writing tradition thirteen years ago when he was still teaching at Wakefield Middle School. He wanted students to be able to see the amount they had grown and changed in a couple years. Some chose not to participate, but those who did don’t regret it. Inscoe was able to gather letters of advice and information by prompting students with serious questions like what they want to be doing in their future and what is important to them. These serious questions were followed by silly ones like what is currently funny but won’t be by senior year and who they think is hot.

Among many seniors, Kiran Cryer stands out as one student who got her letter back particularly late.

“I told myself to delete all social media, and not to pick cat fights with other girls, because I was probably going to get my butt kicked,” said Cryer, “I also told myself to be a nice person and to study hard and get good grades.”

Aside from obviously good ideas such as being nice and getting good grades, Cryer shares that the rest of this advice is still relevant to her life.

“Social media is still super annoying at times,” said Cryer, “Its kind of a nuisance if you think about it.”

For some seniors like Kiran, their advice still resonates with them to this day.

“I was hoping,” said Inscoe, “that some students would actually be able to obtain their goals and end up where they wanted to be. For others, it maybe brought them back to where they wanted to be. It could function as a reality check.”

Inscoe hopes that his students will take something valuable away from this activity and let the letters impact their lives in a positive way.

“You obviously listen to your hindsight, your past-self a little easier, so that’s why I started doing it,” said Inscoe.  “My hopes were that they would get them and then go into their senior year looking at it a bit differently. I hope they obtain their goals and stick with them.”