Dear high-school-age me,

First things first, and I hate to burst your little positivity bubble, but more than half of the friends you have now will not be in your life after graduation. As mean as that sounds, it is true. Even though you will sit there and say, "We are going to stay best friends forever," that's not how life works. You are all going to go to school in different cities, and people are going to change. Yourself being that main person. There will be friends who you no longer have anything in common with and you will have no reason to talk to them anymore, and that is totally OK. Some of them will choose not to talk to you either and that is also OK. There will be certain friends who you can (and will) go months, even years without talking to, but when you reunite with them, it will be as if no time has passed at all. Those are the friends who will be in your life forever, and those are the ones who you can consider your family. Also, you are going to meet some pretty awesome people in college and they are quickly going to become your family too.

Second, stop being so hard on yourself. You are not perfect, and that will never change. Just because it seems like everyone else knows exactly where they are going in life does not mean you have to know. You will figure it out eventually and that is all part of growing up. You will not even have your life figured out within the next five years, so stop stressing out about that now. Just because you are going to go to college eventually does not mean you are supposed to go in knowing exactly what you want to do with your life. You do not need to know which direction you are heading, as long as you keep moving forward.

Third, No one cares about what you "achieved" in high school once you graduate. The only people who will care about your high school grades are the admissions committee's for colleges. Honestly, your GPA really is not all that important. Don't get me wrong, grades are important, but it's not worth making yourself overly stressed out for. No one cares about how many AP classes you took or if you were homecoming queen, no one cares how popular you were, and no one cares about what academic achievements you won. College is a great place where you get to make friends and connections based on who you are as a person, not based on a stupid grade point average.

Fourth, having a boyfriend should not be the most important thing to you right now. Boys are dumb at that age. They're great! But still dumb. I am telling you right now you are going to get your heart broken, so you need to work on those priorities. If something in your life doesn't feel right, then it's not right. Don't waste your time, energy and effort on a guy who you know is not going to be worth it in the end. Also, you need to make smarter decisions when it comes to picking guys. This will save you a lot of trouble in the years to come. Please and thank you.

Finally, you are going to do so many amazing things in college. I know you want nothing more than to graduate and get out of high school (with good reason), but cherish the time you have there. Take advantage of your home town because, I promise, you will miss it when you move away to go to school. Regardless of how ready you are to get out of there, you will get homesick. Finish school strong, because college is about to become a whole different ball game. The classes are way harder, but it's nothing you can't handle. Graduation will be sad, but getting to college makes that sadness to away pretty quickly. Keep being great and get ready to be even greater in college.

Love always,

Your college aged self