A letter from September 12th, 2018

Dear Mack, I am writing in September of 2018 to outline three goals that I am hoping that you will meet by this time in the year 2021. I hope this will serve as an interesting snapshot of the expectations you had for yourself at the beginning of your doctoral studies. The three milestones that I'm hoping you will reach are the following: 1) Have a finalized manuscript of your MA research, and begin submitting to social psychology journals: January, 2019 2) Have successfully defended your PhD prospectus: August, 2020 3) Have successfully defended PhD dissertation, August 2022 Did you meet these goals? If you didn't, try not to be too hard on yourself. The goal of this isn't to shame you from the past. Are you drinking enough water? Eating properly? Are you still trying to run 2-3 times a week? Still lifting weights? How are Mom and Dad? Are Nanny and Poppy still in good health? This will reach you in 2021, so you've been married for two years now! How is that going? Has she gotten sick of you yet? Do you guys finally have a dog? ...I'll leave it there, I could continue with the questions ad nauseam. I just hope you're doing well and that your career is progressing as you had hoped as a first-year PhD student. You've made it this far, so I have no doubt that you're still thriving. Oh God, is Trump still in office? Anyway, I'll let you go. Yours truly, Mack at 24 years old