Friendships will be lost, and it will break your heart. One of the hardest life lessons you'll learn is to let people go. Accepting their absence from your life will take time, but you will heal. Holding on to a friendship that isn't there will only hurt you more in the end. Sometimes it will be very confusing, and you won't understand, but try to recognize when their time is up. Not everyone is meant to stay in your life forever. People will come and go, so find the ones that always stay by your side and treasure them forever.
You don't like the person you've become? The only person who can make a change is you. You control your own life, and all it takes is one step in the right direction to get you going.
Let yourself off the hook. Every now and then you're going to mess up. You're going to be "that girl" at the party. You're going to drunkenly make out with one of your guy friends and feel weird about it that next day. You're going to make a bad grade. You're going to accidentally sleep through your alarm and miss something important. You're going to date that guy. You're going to throw up Aristocrat Vodka and feel like absolute hell the next day. So what. Give yourself a break, and laugh at your mistakes. Grow from every situation, and try to be a better you each day.
Recognize the moments that matter while you're living them. Don't let FOMO be the only reason you go out. Be present and understand when the time is right and when it's not. Be okay with missing out. (Except that one night you stayed in, and everyone went and climbed on Foy Hall—you blew that one. LOL.) There will be plenty of parties, but there won't be infinite nights with your best friends. Continue to make your friends a priority, because they'll be the ones that'll pick you up when you're feeling lost.
Heartbreak happens. Cry it out with your girlfriends, eat some ice cream and pick yourself up the next day. Just because it hurts now doesn't mean it'll hurt forever.
Don't take that "just one more" shot. You don't need it.
Stop trying to be perfect all of the time. Perfection is an unworthy goal simply because it cannot be met. No matter how hard you try, you can't control everything. Be okay with that sooner rather than later. Keep working hard, and good things will happen.
Don't stop being a romantic, no matter how hopeless it may seem.
Be confident and remember that you are more than enough. You are smart enough. You are pretty enough. You are talented enough. You are funny enough. And you sure as hell are more than just numbers on a scale. You are the way you treat your body, so treat it well—physically and mentally.
Be creative, be fanciful, be goal-oriented, be silly and be hardworking, but most importantly be yourself.
And lastly, loving yourself first will be the best decision you ever make.
