Dear High School Me,
It feels weird writing a letter to you when I was you only a few short months ago. College seemed like a lifetime away at the beginning of senior year in high school, but now as the end of freshman year is nearing I can see just how much I have changed and grown in less than a year. If I listed all the things I've learned since moving to college, we'd have a letter to span the continent and back; so let me just stick to a select few.
1. You spent so much time in high school caring way too much about what everyone in your life thought of you.
Walking the straight line of what everyone else told you to do, who they wanted you to be, and you never took enough time for yourself. You spent so much time taking care of others that you often forgot to have fun. Now is the time to do just that. Staying up until 4 a.m. talking with friends is OK once in awhile (even if you do have a class in the morning). Trying new things is an adventure. Do the things that make you happy. Life is an adventure, and you only get one; so live it!
2. Needing people is OK. Not needing people is also OK. You don't need a huge group of friends to define yourself.
How important it is to love myself is probably the biggest thing I have learned since moving away from home. Sure...going out on a Friday night with friends is awesome. Sometimes everyone needs to get out of their heads for a bit, but learning to take time to just be alone with yourself is awesome too. Maybe reading a book or writing in a journal on a bench outside, or having a night in the dorm with a rented movie and a pint of ice cream. Loving others and having friends in your corner is what gets your through life. But loving yourself is what gets you through each and every day.
3. Don't judge a book by it's cover.
Don't keep yourself locked in a box of what you think the people in your life should look like. Odds are, the greatest people and the best friends you will ever know, will be the people you never thought you would ever get along with; let alone come to love when you first met.
4. Failure. Will. Happen.
I know you love things just perfect, and when things aren't you fear that you might loose it. But do you know what? That's not how life works. Nothing is ever going to go according to plan. In fact, be prepared to throw all your plans out the window. Life has a funny way of flipping you on your head and leaving you dazed and confused and not sure which way is up. You're going to fail a biology test. You're going to forget that paper was due. Your'e going to be late to class or let a friend down. You just will. But, when those thing happen, all you can do is keep your head up and keep pushing. Cause tomorrow will be better and brighter, and that next thing to throw you for a loop is on its way. Be ready for it.
And finally...
5. You will fail. You will falter. You will mess up. Just stop apologizing
Stop apologizing for the things you enjoy doing. Stop apologizing for coming up short. Stop apologizing when you don't see exactly eye to eye with the people around you. Just stop. You don't owe them an explanation for anything. Life is weird. It works differently for everyone. You will fall short. You will fail. You will make a decision that you will regret when you have a clear head the next morning. But that's OK. It's part of life and growing up. Apologies are for when you've hurt someone—not when things didn't turn out just right.
Love,
You (but with a little more experience)
