Remember the Future

A Relatively Perfect Birthday

Dear Friends, Geliefdes, 친구, ‎أصدقاء… 

Welcome to a Relatively Perfect Future. I’m so grateful you wanted to be here. Every second of your life up until now, every choice you’ve made in the past, brought you here. Whoever, wherever, whenever you are. I’m glad you’re here now. Welcome Home.

For my birthday, I want to invite you to allow yourself to feel Home. Where you feel completely safe. Where you can just be. No matter where, when, or with whom. Try to hold onto that feeling, that relatively perfect moment in time and space. When and where you feel safe, loved, proud. When and where you feel ‘whelmed’. If you can share that feeling with someone for just a second every day, know that there is hope for a future where every living being can feel home. 

I was born during the Anthropocene, when the Divide was close to a tipping point. ‘Us’ versus ‘Them’. Then, our hope for a better future brought balance to a separation in the Spectrum of Nature/Humanity. Humans around the world collaborated to create a Home for everyone who needed it. 

I grew up on a farm in the Cederberg mountains near the town of Clanwilliam. I had always wanted to be a teacher, and was fortunate enough to be able to live this dream in a foreign country. I had the opportunity to travel, see the most beautiful parts of every place I called Home, even if it was just for a day.

And I met you.

You taught me kindness, compassion, patience, courage, empathy. You gave me HOPE. 

You shared your Whelm with me, even if only for a second. Thank you. 

In 2024, I moved back to the farm and decided to dedicate all my time and resources to spreading hope to every tiny part of the world that I call home - both online and offline. My biggest wish as a teacher was to make supplementary education available to all who need it, no matter their situation. Since the world still measured value in monetary terms, I started hosting ‘donation based homework help’ classes for students from Augsburg who couldn’t afford tutors. A month later, we moved into the Whelm Burrow, a storage room at the boarding school. We did homework, made art, played games, and made friends. 

To help with this project, people from all over collaborated to create a safe space for the students. Friends, business owners, strangers donated time, skills, books, clothes, and money to help me make the Burrow a safe space for students of all ages and backgrounds. Hope was spreading exponentially, and I could see it in the eyes of the children who smiled every time they understood a difficult equation, learned a new word, or created a new artwork. 

For my birthday, I invite you to collaborate with me in a game called ‘Remember the Future’. Remember when everyone felt at Home because you lit up someone’s day with your smile, maybe you hugged your friend when you saw them in the grocery store, or you commented “You look so beautiful today!” on a friend’s instagram post. Remember when you were proud of yourself for creating a safe space where you could help others for one minute, one day, one year. 

And if you want to collaborate with me in creating a Home for the students in Clanwilliam, for the Burners, for anything online or offline, that would be the greatest gift I could ask for today. Just reach out when you have time.