Ahmad – My life in 2040!

I slowly rub my eyes and wake up with a jump of fright. “Where am I?!” I look at my body and panic “How come I have a grown man’s body?!” I try to find the closest reflective object around me and I see a whole new and different version of…. Me. I have no clue how I got here, or where I am. Should I be excited or frightened about this new place… and new me?

I also realize that the atmosphere of this place feel much more peaceful. I somehow feel carefree, as if i don’t have to worry about anything in the world. I should at least try to find out where I am. I start exploring one part of this HUGE house that I am in and  I come across this amazing computer setup.I was startled by the fact that how advanced technology is in this place, my setup consisted of holographic monitors aπnd a super small pc,with lightning-like processing times and I also see a chair floating in the air, “It’s hovering!”, I think to myself. I was so eager to try out the setup that I jump into the hovering chair, I try to design something in a brand new software and realize how well I could design things.                           

I went outside and went to the closest and biggest plaza I could find on my 3d holographic map on my watch which I had on when I woke up. My eyes grew wide as I realized that the watch had the date ‘March 18, 2040’  “How could it be?!” I think to myself. But I moved on to be able to achieve the goal that I had aimed for. I wanted to see how different this place was. I realize how much nature is integrated, it’s everywhere. I sit down and observe everyone from a distance to try to find out what type of people lived in this world. It was honestly a sight to see, people were all smiling and were kind of together in almost indirect way,  for example, if someone that was slightly different came across a person’s path, they wouldn’t stare or acknowledge them in a negative way. Everybody was interested in the people that they were with, like family and friends, nobody cared about whether people were different in looks, from my observations everyone cared about the personality and nothing more.

I went back home and sat on the floating sofa to watch some T.V and I see an ID on the coffee table, the I.D had a picture of me and had the Nike logo on it, my details were  on it as well, but underneath my picture, it said Global designer written on it. Woah! I hear a ping come from my phone, I open it up to see a message from the C.E.O saying whether I was ready for the presentation tomorrow on my new design for the HOVA shoe. What?! I don’t have much time!, I think to myself as I rush to the room that I work in. I started to work on designs for the new shoe that hovers in midair that makes mobility much easier. At first I was surprised because I thought that self-lacing shoes are probably just a general thing to see, I never thought that hovering shoes would be made in the time span of 21 years. Anyway, I went to the Nike headquarters in Oregon on the flying train to hand in and present my concept design to the CEO, and other designers in Nike. Everybody had a mini 3d holographic presentation of the HOVA shoe in front of them and a material prototype of the shoe itself. They gave me some feedback and we discussed the different aesthetic types we could use in order for the shoe to look more aesthetically pleasing to the public eye.  

When I got home on the air-train I got an excellent view of the city that I lived in. The vibrant lights swarmed every alleyway and street that you could see. The skyscrapers had spaceships on top of their buildings, they almost look like something out of Star Trek, but in different and bright colours with a logo of the company that owned the spaceship. I could also see tiny people that looked like a swarm of bees. Some of them were dashing through the street while riding a hoverboard, and others looking at holographic screen through a microscopic projecter on their shoulder. It was a clean, vibrant and peaceful city to look at and live in.

When I arrived home, I was in utter disbelief of the home that I was living in, as I was so busy with work that I completely forgot about the exploration of the house.The exterior was amazing, it had angular walls but from the inside they looked completely straight. There’s also an invisible force-field that is voice activated and keeps all intruders out, and had different geometrical walls made of triangles, it also had a grand entrance that used eye scanning security on the outside. But on the inside, there were ceilings the size of two elephants stacked on top of each other, in fact, there was a half court basketball court with a ten foot high rim, and that didn’t even touch the top of ceiling, and I also had a kitchen the size of the two rooms compared to the house that I lived in before I came to this weird place.I also had a bedroom with hand-painted designs on the wall made by me, with a king sized bed that floated in the air. But the living room was the biggest place of them all, it had 3 floating tv’s and levitating sofas that can be moved to any place in the house. It was amazing…

I began to have questions about everything that had happened so far. ‘How did I get here?!’ I thought to myself. ‘Does that mean that my family is here as well?’ I questioned myself once more. As soon as this thought was brought upon me, I got up off the levitating sofa and ran to get the car keys of my floating electric mercedez, I started the car and said “how do I work this thing?”, I read the manual and by following the instructions, I said. “Navigation to Mom and Dad ”. “I hope that they’re still here” I said out loud  then the big widescreen in the center of the car popped up with a map and the car started driving to the address.Once I got to the address, I saw a grand house that had a window, to see dad in his workspace practically hypnotised to the screen.I waited outside their house in the car. I needed to gather my thoughts. “What do I say ?” “How do I enter?” , but I realized that no matter what I say or do, they’ll understand me, they don’t care how I talk or greet them, they’ll still love me.”Just act normal” I said to myself. I then get out of the car and knock on the window that shows a view of dad on his computer, then I wave as he realizes who’s outside. He smiles and lets me in. I gave him a tight hug, I couldn’t believe it, it was them, I didn’t care if they were older, because no matter how old they are I still love them. I let go from the embrace and walk on to see what mama’s doing. Before I even enter the kitchen I knew mama was cooking up a storm. I could smell Nihari. I gave her a big hug and after a few minutes Saba came out of her room and I gave her a big hug. We both sat down in the living room and slowly the rest of the family came and sat down in the living room. We talked for hours and had dinner, then Saba got up and went to the hospital that she owned and told us that she had a few appointments with some patients. I stayed for a little while and went back home as well.

The next day I pondered everything that had happened so far. “I know everything good about my life in the future, what about the bad things?”. Once I really thought about it, I found out that there were so many things, I didn’t have many friends, I also wanted to have a higher role in Nike, I just wanted to be the best me I could be.

But I thought to myself ‘I can change all of it, everything that I will do here impacts my life in the future.’ So I made a list of the things that can be improved and a list of the good things in future life. Then I wrote a bunch of scenarios that potentially effect the good and bad things in my life. The whiteboard was filled with ideas. But I got it. These   three simple alterations will create three HUGE changes in my future life.

Change number one. Socialising. I had to choose this change because I didn’t have friends, I kind of isolated myself from people other than my family. So the next day I went work with a positive mindset and talked to my colleagues. It felt much better than just focusing on my work, because I know that socialising helps me in so many different ways. Through the results of my effort, I made a new friend. HIs name was Sam and we talked for a while after our work. He was nice, confident and really talented in designing. It was much better to have someone to discuss design and things in general at work rather than isolating yourself from everyone else and just focusing on your work. Hopefully I remember this experience and always try to socialise with others.

While I was sitting on the floating aero-train and looking out of the window to see the beautiful city, I think about the next change I want to make in my future. But on the way home I had an idea. An idea so exciting and innovative that it potentially could revolutionize the whole sportswear industry. I get home and start working on the prototype for my idea. Before i begun I see something in the drawer that is filled with different prototype tech.I pick it up and I see a label on it that says ‘Holographic fabricator’. “What’s this?” I say as I press a button that says ‘activate’. It glows green and a surge of green light flourishes through the machine as an interactive hologram opens. I read the manual and realize what it is. It’s a machine that fabricates all the designs that you make on the hologram. So I decided it would be much easier to make a prototype on this. So once I created the 3d design I pressed the black button that says  ‘fabricate’. The machine’s top opened up and it took all the materials for the prototype that I had inputted and gave me the shoe. After that, I went on my  my computer and created the code for my idea, I then installed the code into the shoe. After all of this I asked for a meeting with the highly ranked officials of nike and then went to sleep. I had gotten really late. I woke up the next day and got ready for my meeting. Once I got to the meeting in oregon I waited in the conference room for the rest of the people in the meeting.

Once everyone had come to the conference room, I began. “Good morning everyone, today you’ve been called to this meeting because of this new idea that I think will benefit this company in ways beyond imagination, if you would please unveil the cloth in front of you.” I say as the officials take off the cloth that is in front of each of them to reveal a grey shoe. “Now, you may be thinking, ‘what’s so special about this shoe?’, well, this shoe has a voice-activated feature in which you tell it you destination and it finds the optimal route through trains, buses etc without you even needing to think about walking. ”   The officials and other designers murmur between each other after they had heard what I said. I continue my speech and said. “In front of you are your sizes, you can try them on and tell it to go to your office and then tell the shoes to come back to this conference room”. After they did that, they came back in with shocked faces. “Any comments?” I ask them as I end the presentation. The C.E.O responds with, “When can we start the project?”, a big grin comes across my face as he said that. The whole conference room starts to applaud. “This is it”… I think to myself.

I go home feeling on top of the world and realize that this shoe will probably affect my job in extremely positive ways. Having a better job was also one of my top priorities when it came to improving my future. In fact that was the second of the three big ideas that could change everything in my future life.

It was the weekend, this is probably the ideal time to face the last idea of mine when it came to improving my future life. I need to visit my family more. When it came to the places I had to go, or the people I have to visit I had them put as reminders on my phone, but when it came to my family, it was set to remind me only once per month. I never want that for myself in the future. I wanted to visit them more. So I got into the self-driving car and drove off to their house. When I entered the house, I realized that when it came to my family in 2040, it wasn’t any different to 2019, except the fact that we were all older and slightly more mature. If I compared my life of 2019 and 2040 they were not different at all. We laughed, dad made a few jokes here and there, whereas mum told us about how we were different compared to now. Throughout all of the stories, I learnt a lot about how I was past the years of 2019. Mum told us about how “Your disgusting jokes that you three used to make haven’t changed,” she said jokingly, “but the way you two began to work much harder, was a drastic change throughout the years. ” I smile and realize that I should already act like that in 2019 and further through the years anyway.

I went back home and lie on my floating bed reflecting on the day. “The things that Mum said that had changed about me in the years should’ve already been changes in 2019.” I think to myself “I need to work on that.”  I lie on my side and close my eyes and stare into the abyss of darkness that had now been put over my eyes. In a few minutes I had gone back to sleep. I must’ve been really tired, I  usually don’t go to sleep in the middle of the day. I wake up and realize that not only can I change things while in the future, but if I get back to 2019, I can learn from the mistakes I had made.

So I went back to my parents’ house the next day again. There was a question I had to ask….  I got to their house and asked them the question, “How could’ve I been better as a kid?”. “What do you mean?” my parents reply with. “What would’ve you liked more from me?”.  “Well, maybe you could’ve been more focused on your work and could have taken more pride in whatever you did, because whenever you actually tried, you could do anything. Why?”  “Just asking.”  I say as I get up from the sofa to get ready for dinner. Once we had dinner, I went back home thinking about what they said. Today, I was in the mood of driving. Those thoughts ran through my head as I was driving. “I can improve on what they said when I get back.” “How did I get in 2040 anyway?”  As these thoughts run through my mind I slowly begin to veer off to the side of the road. Meanwhile, those thoughts were all I was thinking of, but then look up and see how close I was to the walls on the side of the tunnel. I grab the steering wheel to steer myself away from the wall, but realize that it was too late, as soon as the car made contact with the wall. I was back in 2019 sitting bolt upright in my bed with sweat trickling down my face.

“What?!” “How am I back here?!” I say out loud. I get out of bed and run to my parent’s room to see whether I was really back home or not. They were there. Sleeping. “How could this be?!”, I think to myself as I walk out of their bedroom. “Was it all just a dream?”. I check the dat on my Ipad and see the date 14th of March,2019. “No way!” I sit down on the couch and contemplate what had just happened. Although, I realize that whatever that was I learnt from it and have learnt lessons throughout that journey.I vowed to myself that from then on, I would always take pride in whatever I did. Whether it is homework, or work given from my parents, I would try my best on everything I did. Then I came up with three small and simples that could make HUGE changes in my present. I wasn’t just doing it for my parents, I was doing it for myself.

Step one. Working hard. I told myself that if I didn’t put my full effort in what I did I would start over and over until I’m actually satisfied with it. After that day, all my work was something that I was proud of.

Step two. Learning to do whatever I did for myself and not others. I also promised myself that I wouldn’t do work for the sake of the person it’s for, I would do it to learn and improve.

Step three. Love my family more. In that “dream” I absolutely didn’t like that I wasn’t as close to my family as I wanted to be. Ever since then I’ve never loved them more. Not that I didn’t before.

Ever since the day I dreamt about the future, everything had changed….

                                                                      The End!