2070 AD

I’m 28… I’ve managed to find myself at this age, truthfully, without much to show for it. Most of my career ventures up until this point have been by and large, completely unsuccessful and, after finishing my masters two years ago I have been languishing in a seemingly endless series of dead end work opportunities that, like many jobs in the creative industries start out with a seemingly grand vision only to devolve into something not quite so grand and something where the financial compensation woefully falls short of the time needed to complete the venture. 

A friend of mine once told me that I was intelligent and capable but that I lacked ambition to do anything, and in his words “that frustrates the piss out of me” and I must say to my anonymous friend that I respectfully disagree. I don’t think that I lack ambition in the slightest I think what I lacked was a direction in which I could apply myself fully and see tangible results. That being said having this opportunity to join the advertising industry has put a bit of the proverbial fire underneath the tuchus. 

I’ve been contemplating the future recently and wanted to take a hypothetical leap into my forthcoming life and career milestones through the coming decades and project my thoughts, feelings and aspirations into short reflective blog (as is dictated by the SCAB format).  

I’m 38, been in the game 10 years or so now and boy have I been making waves. I was always worried that I’d started off too late to make this kind of surf, that my cultural relevance would have evaporated by this point but you know what… my cultural capital is At. It’s. Peak. as they say 40 is the new 25… I started to dabble in shares and the stock market, you know like you do when you’re approaching 40 and looking for the next big thing. Might sit on those for a while see how they pan out, investing in the future seems like a good idea, things are good and seem to be keeping on that way, you know? Life is great and I’m living the dream, might even start my own agency in the next couple of years, really take things to the big leagues…

I’m 48… you know what I’m finally getting the hang of this life thing, some of my investments came up… in a big way. Thinking that I might finally buy myself that hybrid Mustang I’ve always wanted, not in a mid life crisis kind of way mind you, I’ve just worked bloody hard up until this point and I think I’ve earned it by now, yeah I’m getting a little bit more salt and pepper but I always thought I’d look great grey, its how young you feel right?

You know what? I did start that agency, yeah, me and a couple of the guys… yeah its going great thanks for asking, you wouldn’t believe the awards season we just had, yeah, just got back from Cannes too, was mental, I’m recovering for two weeks at my place in Lake Cuomo, then back to it. If you want a picture of success this is what it looks like mate.

Im 58, I’m thinking about slowing down at this point. Given up the reigns a little more at work, trying to spend more time on my novel. Maybe buy a little place in the country and give up a few of the ostentatious extras and find out what life is really about… Hell, maybe I’ll even try building my own place, I’ve ticked most other things of the old bucket list at this point, my priorities have shifted but I’m no less ambitious that’s for sure, thankfully I can download YouTube tutorial’s directly into my brain by this point, sorta like that vintage movie with the guys in leather and all the the kung-fu, I forget the name. Should make learning carpentry a bit easier though. 

I’m 68, climate and society have collapsed, we have returned to a system of feudal substance farming. The concept of advertising is but a distant memory in the collective human consciousness. I have started a commune and taken on a series of polyamorous relationships with a dozen or so people of non specific gender, for some reason, all called River. Who knew the Amish had it right all along?

I enjoy the simplicity of my new life, bartering chicken eggs for a quart of milk, discovering a passion for horticulture, mucking out a barn. Despite the hardships I feel a sense of deepest contentment, perhaps I had always yearned for an escape from the rat race of my previous existence. I consider my homestead perhaps my greatest success so far. 

I’m 78 and I am dead, I have passed, I am no more, I have ceased (rather unceremoniously) to be, I have expired and gone to meet my maker, my metabolic processes have ceased to function. 

In my final moments I had an omnipresent mantra forced upon me my the deepest recesses of my psyche…

“human endeavour is futile and life is functionally meaningless”

I was consumed by nihilistic apathy as my Jungian Shadow reared it’s ugly head and let me know all meaning I had attributed to my apparent successes had been a construction of my ego and of a consciousness desperately afraid of it’s own mortality, screaming into the void, searching for a non existent purpose. 

But yeah things are going really well with me so far, thanks for asking, how about you?