Dear Past Self,

Every moment has led you here. Every mistake, every wrong turn, every doubt and every disaster has brought you to this very moment. For better or for worse, you are here. Sometimes I think about all those moments. Some have me laughing until it hurts and others leave me cringing with embarrassment. Some make my eyes fill with tears and others make me ball up my fists in anger. I wish you knew how insignificant so many of those seemingly “earth-shattering” moments will become to you, how you’ll look back at them with a fond nonchalance and simply chalk them up to an experience. The cliché that time heals all proves to be true. While time will fade any wounds you have, unfortunately the good tends to fade with time, too. So savor those sweet and syrupy happy moments while you’re in them before they’re nothing but nostalgia.

You will make mistakes. And I mean, so many mistakes. It’ll make you angry, and you’ll be hard on yourself. I want you to know that you shouldn’t regret a single thing. Soon, all mistakes blur into a thing of the past. They stop holding power over you once you learn from them. And sometimes you have to make the same mistake more than once before it finally turns into a lesson, and that’s OK. Just always remember how every single time that it felt like the world was ending, you woke up the next morning and the world kept on turning. Life absolutely goes on, that’s something you can always count on. And that means it will go on with or without you, so the best thing you can do is move on with it.

I want you to take every chance and opportunity that you're given because your life will become so much more full and satisfying when you finally start doing this. Say yes to everything even if it’s risky — especially if it’s risky. This is something I’m still learning to do, but take it from me, the sooner you stop playing it safe the better. Get used to failing often and failing hard, because you’re going to do it a lot.

You, and pretty much everyone else, will never be perfect. Accepting this is probably going to be the most liberating thing you can do. You can chase perfection forever, and you’ll never once catch it. Stop striving for this unattainable ideal, and see how much easier it is to breathe. You’re free to be wonderfully flawed and imperfect.

Lastly, I’m going to spoil the ending for you and let you know that everything will be OK. Despite what you may think, you’re doing good.

Keep being young and dumb and make some more mistakes because I can assure you that they’ll make for good stories in a couple years. I’ll see you soon.

Sincerly,

Yourself