To my younger self,

Here you are, ready to embark on the rest of your life. Your childhood is now behind you, and you’re about to transcend into the newfound world of individuality. Your fate is in the palm of your hands, and suddenly, you’re trapped in a whirl of uncertainty. Your life up to this point may not have been a breeze, but was locked under the safety net of Mom and Dad. Here you go, headfirst into your future. If you don’t realize it yet, your future is entirely the product of your mental and physical well-being. In other words, life is solely what you make of it.

You’re constantly told that the key to happiness is to love yourself and to take care of your body and soul, but you're blithely unaware of what that even means. To you, happiness is acceptance, whether it’s from your friends, romantic interests, parents, professors, or bosses. If they love you, admire you, want to be around you, and/or desire your respect, you deem yourself worthy. Like the girls you so often compare yourself to, your life should be picture-perfect. You’re so caught up in the way others perceive you that you neglect your perception of yourself.

You like to socialize and make friends, but you don’t enjoy the classic frat scene. You cannot wrap your head around some aspects of Greek life, but eventually, you join anyway, because everyone else is part of it. You spend hours on your hair and makeup before any social event, in hopes that others will either envy you or want to be around you. You force yourself to stay out later than you can stand and to be surrounded by those who seem to have the most fun, yet who have no issues degrading themselves for the sake of fitting in. Your grades go down the tubes, and you find yourself feeling lost and out of control.

You don’t realize it yet, but you are more brilliant than you have ever given yourself credit for. Your ideas are powerful, and your instincts are usually spot on. Your intuition is sacred, and until you figure this out for yourself, you choose to ignore your own potential. You have everything you need to be the successful, passionate, driven young woman you’ve dreamed of becoming, but you’re so enclosed within your own walls of self-doubt.

I wish you knew then what you know now. No dream is too trivial to pursue, and no goal is out of your reach. No friend is worth compromising your own values for, and no boy is worth your energy that does not fully desire and embrace your beauty within. No party is worth failing an exam for, and no social event is more important than surrounding yourself with those who love you.

You are so lucky. You’ve been given every opportunity under the sun, and are blessed to live in a nation that allows you to believe what you want, achieve your goals, and create a life of your choice. You have parents who support you emotionally and financially, and have given you the gift of the life they have worked so tirelessly for. Most importantly, you are wonderful.

To those who do not understand yet, you hold the key to your own happiness. You are what you attract. If you are constantly putting negative thoughts out there, you will receive negativity in return. The happiest people are the ones that create joy for themselves, and do not take no for an answer. They work for what they want, and take pleasure in what they have.

Instead of dwelling on the downfalls of your life, grip on to the wonder of your being and do not let go. If I could go back and tell myself one thing, it would be to let go of the things that don’t make me blissfully joyful, and to make the best of what is not in my control. Learn to love every part of who you are, because you are all you have for the rest of your life. Why be miserable when you can be happy?

Good things are going to happen.