A Letter to the Person Who Will Inhabit My Body
A Letter to the Person Who Will Inhabit My Body
The Great One-Year Swap
The Great One-Year Swap
You wake up one morning to find a letter on your bedside table.
It’s from… you?
Or rather, it’s from the person who used to be in your body. Because for the next 365 days, you will be living in someone else’s body, and someone else will be living in yours.
You will have no control over who gets your body.
You will not know whose body you are receiving until the swap happens.
Everything goes back to normal in exactly one year.
Your job is to write a letter to the stranger who is about to live as you.
Introduce yourself, but make it clear that you are now gone. The person reading the letter is living your life for a full year.
Explain how to care for your body. Are there specific habits, allergies, or weird quirks they need to know?
Give them rules. What are they absolutely not allowed to do with your body?
Request things from them. Since you’ll be swapping into someone else’s body, what do you want in return? A six-pack? A tattoo? A better skincare routine?
How should they handle your relationships? Should they fake their way through? Avoid certain people? Keep up an illusion?
Set expectations. What’s going to be hard? What’s going to be weird?
"The User Manual for My Body" – Write the letter like a set of instructions, giving them a list of rules, warnings, and best practices.
"Just Don’t Mess This Up" – A letter filled with paranoia, as if the writer is terrified of what this stranger might do with their body.
"If You’re Reading This, I’m You Now" – A letter that starts with the realization that the swap has already happened, forcing both people to live in each other’s skin.
"Look, We Can Make This Work" – A letter that takes a negotiation approach, asking the stranger to improve their body while making very specific requests for their new one.
"What I Hope You Learn From This" – A more reflective piece, where the narrator sees this as a chance for someone else to walk in their shoes—and for them to walk in someone else’s.
What is one very specific thing about your body that this new person needs to know?
What are your absolute “DO NOTs”? (No weird haircuts? No embarrassing social media posts?)
What do you want out of this swap? (A better diet? A cooler wardrobe? A chance to see how another life is lived?)
What weird realizations might they have when living as you? (Do you sleep weird? Have a very specific morning routine? Hate tomatoes with a passion?)
"Congratulations! You are now living as me for one full year. Before you go wrecking my life, please read the following carefully. I will know if you don’t."
"Welcome to my body. It’s not the best model, but it gets the job done. You break it, you buy it."
"I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. But what I do have are a very particular set of instructions for how to handle this body."
"First of all, don’t panic. I mean, you should panic a little, but not too much. Just enough to know this isn’t a joke. Second, whatever you do, don’t mess with my hair."
"You have just inherited my body for a full year. That means you are responsible for all of my relationships, my grades, and my metabolism. I don’t know who you are, but for the love of all things good, please don’t ruin me."