On September 2nd, 2009, I made my first post on Facebook. I was 13 years old and ready to post something on the cool site my mom played Farmville on. It’s now 2026, so I can’t begin to remember if I put any real thought into it. I just typed something, probably responding to the little input box prompt. And the something that I typed was… Nothing.
Or, more accurately, “nothing”, as I wasn’t much for capitalization yet. This one word would begin my post MySpace online life. The “nothing” post and the 10 years that followed were largely unremarkable. It’s what I decided to add in November of 2019 which gave this nothing burger of a post some substance.
Hey, me from a little over 10 years ago. Who knew we’d make it this far. Things are going, as usual. It’s funny, someone who didn’t really like to travel got on an airplane, on purpose! Isn’t that wild? You also ended up traveling to Philly basically on your own! No parents! You got back into anime, big time. You’ve actually gone to a couple conventions. You’re really gonna like Homestuck, let me tell you. You had a rough time with school, but it’s okay, because you ended up graduating from SU anyway. You have a really cool apartment, and Zeena and Bella are the best cats. Things didn’t work out with someone you haven’t met yet, but it’s okay, you’ll survive. In fact, you’ll end up getting a job for a while afterwards. He’s still a good friend though, so that’s really good! You will disconnect with someone you know, but when he comes back into your life it’ll be really rad. You find people along the way who care about you and who will either stay or go, such is the nature of life. You don’t need to be so hard on yourself for taken the path less traveled, everyone gets where they need to be differently. You’re pretty darn leftist now, though you spent an embarrassing amount of time conservative. You will discover more things about yourself and the world, and you will really dislike gender.
And don’t worry, you’ll get a really cool smartphone
Things will be okay. If I could say anything important to you, it’s don’t give up on your dreams, even when they seem impossible. See you in another 10 years
This took “nothing” from being a random one off post to being a sort of check in point for my future selves. I left this wonderfully kind message to my past self, carrying a softness I seldom carry for current me to this day. It’s so interesting looking back at this comment: a proverbial message in a bottle set adrift in cyberspace, unintentionally becoming a compassionate time capsule.
So of course, I had to follow up 3 years early (September 29th, 2026):
Hello me from 2009 and 2019! It’s not quite 10 years yet, but I have updates...
First of all, we made it to 30! That’s pretty cool. Second, we went to Japan nearly 3 years ago at this point! That was a fantastic trip that left us with a serious travel bug and a new appreciation for world exploration. 2022 was a huge year, retrospectively. We met two people who changed our life forever and saw MCR in concert, and this leads into 2023 where we met even more people precious to us and took the long flight to another continent (Tokyo is a lot of fun, you’ll both love it). We have a job now, and It’ll be 4 years at that job next April. As for this year (2026), we moved like 50 million times in the past 9 months, but now we’re settled. Zeena and Bella are none too happy with all the moving around. On a whim you take in a kitten and name him Salem.
We are still making jewelry, which is really fun. We need to stop buying beads at this point, tbh. Also, we’ve learned how to code and have made several projects since 2022. My favorite concept was CraftBookz, which I’m planning to re-release as a small utility app for handmade jewelry makers to figure out their COGS. Quazom was fun, but ultimately a bit convoluted. I learned a good bit of Japanese over 5 years, though I’m currently taking a break from that to learn Mandarin.
Strangely, I thought I’d have more to say. A lot happened in the past 7 years, but at the same time, 3 of those years were kinda muddled by the massive virus that shall not be named that was probably already starting to circulate as of my last comment. I feel I’m just living life now, and though it feels slow paced and monotonous at times, it’s basically because I’m finally “adulting” properly and being an adult kinda blows. You make money just to pay bills and spend money on DoorDash orders you should Not be ordering, and the cycle never stops.
Goals for next check in:
- Visit Japan again
- Check Europe off the list
- Start a blog
Good luck out there. See you in 2029!
P.S: Robots are real now (AI), and a lot of people are really mad about it! Turns out that robots need a lot of water to live, like a tree, but instead of oxygen it spits out a whole bunch of other crap.
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This newest comment feels somehow simultaneously grand and bland to me. And maybe that’s due to the fact that I just wrote it today. Though, I think I described it aptly: I’m just living life now. Even while I do things that my 2019 self could only dream of, it all feels normal now. I work, which is my new normal. I travel often, which is my new normal. I spend my spare time learning languages, making jewelry, and building SaaS projects, which is all very par the course now.
The things that are scary and wonderful and curious are the things I have wanted to do, but haven’t mustered the courage on. Beginning something new is terrifying, at least to me. There’s always the chance it isn’t received well. And in todays’s algorithmic slurry of content, it can feel like everything I put online is under a microscope. Everything has to either be funny or rage bait to get far, it seems.
And while I crowned myself the funniest person I know IRL, the court of online opinion may say otherwise. I may be dubbed “Cringe” or some other negative label. However, 2009 Cayla did not worry about that. She had nothing to worry about, as she was posting something her family members might see and no one else. It existed as a blip, saying nothing and fading into the anneals of time.
That is, until I found it again. And then I did a scary thing: I was vulnerable on the algorithm internet. I posted a caring message to make myself feel better, to remind myself of the progress I’ve made. Though, honestly, I feel I’ve made more progress between 2019 and now than I did in the entire first decade before my first post. I was able to actually build a life for myself, free of a toxic codependent relationship, and outside of the family bubble. I was able to grow and change into the individual I am today.
And that’s the crux of what this post is about: Doing new things that seem small but encourage growth. I said in my response to my response to “nothing” that I wanted to start a blog. Here I am, blogging. Hopefully my prose becomes better with time, as I can be a bit wordy and scattered currently. But it’s those awkward first steps that hopefully lead into the beautifully mundane success enjoyed a decade in the future.
Maybe being an adult will blow a little less at that point.
