Dear me,
I would normally start a letter off with "I hope you are doing well," but I know you're not. I know that you THINK you are doing well, but no one knows you better than I do right now. I know exactly what you're going through, I know that you think no one understands, and I know that you're thinking there's no way you're going to make it out of high school alive.
Girls are mean. Boys are mean. (Some) teachers are mean. The whole world seems to be against you. You can't seem to fit in anywhere, not even in your family. You think boys will never like you, and your pimples will never go away. You think you'll never truly find a best friend, and you'll never truly be happy. The world is a cruel place.
I'm here to tell you that it does, in fact, get better. I'm here to tell you that you literally have the best years of your life ahead of you. I'm here to tell you that everyone looks back at their 15-year-old self and cringe a little because yes, they hated themselves too. I promise you'll look back on these years and laugh with those mean boys that made fun of you because guess what; your entire graduating class is friends with each other. People stop being mean. You look forward to coming home from college and sitting around a bonfire roasting hotdogs with the same guy you were crying over last week. That girl that made your life miserable... Okay, yeah actually I don't know where she ended up. But that's good! She's irrelevant. You and your best friend that you met in college are going through those MySpace selfies you just uploaded and are really wishing you didn't.
This time that you're living right now is SUPPOSED to be that time to be weird. It's supposed to be those times you mess up; and trust me, you will definitely mess up. You're going to hurt people's feelings. You're going to date that guy that you REALLY shouldn't have... Still kind of mad at you for that, but hey it's a learning experience! You're going to get bad grades and you're going to spend way too much time worrying about what other people think of you.
But guess what else happens in high school...
You finally dump that guy and see you deserve so much better. You become your own independent self, make new friends... and you get another boyfriend. But it's okay because this one is better! You'll be ready to leave this small town by the time your senior year rolls around. I won't spoil it by telling you where you're going, but just know that it'll be the best decision you will ever make. It's going to seem like the end of the world when you don't get accepted into the college you thought you wanted to go to. Just trust me when I say that this will be the time in your life that you will cherish forever. This is when you'll start wanting the school years to slow down and the summers to go by faster. This is where your friends become your family and your college becomes your home.
I know you're in a hurry to grow up. But please, just make the best of the life you're living right now. In six years, you're going to be sitting here writing this letter to your 15-year-old self and die a little on the inside because you literally just had to count how many years ago that was.
You're smart. You're strong. You can do anything. I promise.
Love,
Me
