Dreams

Dear Margo,

Boy, do I have some news for you! $20,000! I still can’t believe it, but it's true. I have an extra $20,000 now!

I was just walking down the street when I found this wallet laying on the sidewalk. It was one of those smooth brown leather wallets that had faded all around the edges from constantly being slipped in and out of someone’s back pocket. No, I did not find $20,000 in said wallet, but what I did find was an I.D. card. I figured I should return the wallet to its owner, so I looked up the address. It was a bit far away, but I didn’t have anything else to do, so I walked to the bus stop and waited. After a few different buses, and quite a bit of walking, I found myself staring, mouth agape and eyes wide, at this vast estate.

There were beautiful gardens filled with large, red roses. There were gorgeous Roman-inspired statues everywhere. They even had one of those awesome driveways that wraps around a giant fountain to form a loop, so you don’t have to worry about backing out of the driveway. The manor itself was four stories high and looked like a newer version of one of those plantation houses they took us to tour in elementary school. All of this was hidden behind giant stone walls that were covered in ivy with the only peak at the estate being through the bars of the wrought iron gate.

To get in, I had to call someone on the intercom system at the gate. After being interrogated for what seemed like forever by a gruff voice on the other end of the line, the gates finally opened before me. I stepped tentatively down the driveway until I reached the stairs that led up to the grandiose front door. Just as I placed my foot on the first step, one of the Mahogany doors swung open revealing an elderly man in a perfectly tailored suit.

He was the cutest old man with these thick round glasses and a crooked red bowtie. He greeted me with a thin, wrinkly smile, thanked me for coming to his home to return his wallet, and then he told me to wait a second. When he returned, he had his checkbook with him. He insisted on paying me for my troubles. I tried to refuse his generosity, but after a while, it just felt rude not to take the check. It was only after I took the bus all the way back home that I realized the check was for $20,000!

At first, I couldn’t even believe it. It had to be a mistake. I even trekked back to the house to make sure the check was legitimate. Turns out, he really did give me $20,000. Now, I need to figure out is what to do with it. So far, I’ve just left it sitting on my dresser. I haven’t even cashed it yet. That would probably be a good first step, but what should I do with it after?

It's an age-old question: if you were to suddenly come into a ton of money, what would you do with it? I think most people probably give pretty similar answers, but what would we actually do with it? I mean, if you had asked me yesterday what I would do with an extra $20,000, I would have come up with some cheesy answer I've told to a million people that makes me look like some great person: “$20,000? Well, I'd probably give half of it away to (whatever the biggest charity/cause is right now), and then I’d divide the rest between my student loans and investments.” Then I’d sit back and let you see how kind-hearted, practical, and intelligent I am.

But I truly do have an extra $20,000 now. I never expected the phrase "put your money where your mouth is" to haunt me in such a real way.

So, what am I going to do with it? I could do what I said I would with it, but I don't have that much in student loans anyway, so that seems like a bit of a waste. What if I died next week? My student loans wouldn’t matter then. Maybe I could pay down someone else's loans? But then does that count as the charity thing? Investing some of it sounds like a pretty good plan, or at least saving part of it for emergencies, but that makes me sound like such a BORING, reasonable person. Part of me just wants to do something fun and wild with the money. I mean, I already invest and save part of my paycheck. I already make regular payments towards my debt. Why shouldn't I do something crazy with this extra money? Something just for me. Something that would provide me with happiness for the rest of my life. But what could that possibly be?

What do you think about using the money for my Little Black Book Fund? Do you remember that little black book I carry around with me everywhere? You know, the one that I’m constantly writing in? It’s almost a little embarrassing how much I use that thing, huh?

I mean, I practically do write everything down in that book: how many calories I've eaten, how many calories I've burned, how many hours I slept, how many steps I took, whether I brushed my teeth, whether I wore my nightguard, whether I practiced Mandarin, if I was sick, if I was bloated, my to-do list, my shopping list, how many pimples I have, how much water I drank, what I'm grateful for, quotes I need to remember, lessons I've learned. Every day I seem to find some new habit that I should track in my little black book. I wake up with it by my side. I take it with me to breakfast, to work, to school, to dinner. I even take it with me into the bath, you know, just in case I have some time-stopping, world-changing, mind-blowing revelation while I soak away the day.

What you probably don’t remember about my book, is the “Dreams” section in the very back. As you know, I’m a pretty open book. I’ll let people read my journal, I’ll let them flip through my habit and mood trackers. I’ll even let them look at my weight loss chart that, admittedly, does not show that much progress; however, no one has ever laid eyes on my “Dreams” section.

In this section of my little black book lives my 5-year-plan, my 10-year-plan, all the universities and degrees I would love to apply to, my bucket list, and most importantly, an infographic for every country I want to visit before I die.

Can you imagine the places I could go with $20,000? Can you imagine the things I could experience? I could see the pyramids in Egypt, participate in a tea ceremony in Japan, go SCUBA diving in between continents in Norway… There are so many possibilities. Oh, Margo, what do you think I should do? You always know what to do. Please, grant me some of your wisdom! Maybe you and I could do something together? Doesn’t that sound cool? We could do a trip around Europe or we could just burn through all the money on a luxurious week in Paris. I’m about to head to the bank to deposit this check before I lose it but write me back and tell me what you think about all this. I love you so much and hope you’re doing well.

All my love,

Jojo