Look back five years...

[Tom]

Hello everybody (Amy, Conchita, Alan, Jamie K and Mr. Micawber)

I am stuck: I need help, again. Is the given sentence correct? If yes, complete it, please, or rephrase it.(The speaker talks about his past and future. He tells that five years ago he was living in a hut, but in future, as he assumes, he will be living in a mansion) "This is the line I want to write in my short story."

1- When I look back five years I find myself in a shabby
hut, but when I look ........ five years, I am in a
comfortable mansion.

Thanks in advance
Tom

[Guest]

Hi Tom!

Sorry for interveneing but I find this an interesting problem. I also wanted to know whether my solution could be correct:

Looking back, five years ago, I find myself living in a shabby hut but when I look to the future, after five years will have gone by, I see myself living in a comfortable mansion.

Michael

[Yankee]

Hi Tom

I would use the word "ahead" or "forward" in your sentence:
"When I look back five years I find myself in a shabby hut, but when I look ahead five years, I am in a comfortable mansion."

Hi Michael
Your sentence was:
Looking back, five years ago, I find myself living in a shabby hut but when I look to the future, after five years will have gone by, I see myself living in a comfortable mansion.

You made several errors:
-- "Looking back": Good phrase, but it doesn't work well in the sentence you wrote.
-- "ago": Adding this word pretty much guarantees that you need to use the simple past tense or the past continuous (and you didn't use either one).
-- "after": You can't use "will" here (should be: "after 5 (more) years have gone by")

I would change your sentence this way:

Five years ago I was living in a shabby hut, but five years from now I see myself living in a comfortable mansion.
-- OR this way --
Looking back five years, I find myself living in a shabby hut, but looking five years into the future, I see myself living in a comfortable mansion.

Amy