Often times in life, you catch yourself questioning what you do before you do it. We live in this world where judgement is a common occurrence, and being yourself is extremely tricky. You want to be the popular person that everyone strives to be like, but you also want to be your weird, crazy self that people don't really seem to understand. On top of the social pressure, in the back of your mind, you know you want to make your parents proud, and you want to be the person they raised you to be. You hear how proud everyone in your family is because you graduated from high school, you bought your first place or you got that job that you had been waiting to hear back from for weeks. Instead of making everyone else proud, why don't you decide to celebrate yourself?

Yes, I said celebrate yourself. As a college student (and as an adult), setting time aside for yourself is next to impossible. You may think you have a day when you can do what you want, but it turns out you just forgot to write down what you actually have to do in your planner. Free time is a thing of the past, and you often see yourself longing for the naps that you fought your parents on when you were younger.

The reality of the situation is — you deserve that break more than anyone. Regardless of whether or not you graduated from high school, survived your first cringe-worthy breakup, or are just getting by on your minimum wage job, you should be extremely proud of yourself. You have survived many chapters of your life, and that's something to celebrate.

As you grow up, you will figure out that there are a billion and one things that you want to try. There are so many new, exciting things that we are shielded from as we grow out of our teen phase. Try them! Don't be afraid to branch out and do something for you! Too often we sit back and let life fly by without taking some chances, but personal experience has shown me that the chances I took were the ones that had the most impact on my life.

A recent discovery of mine is Zumba. Every week I try and set aside a day when I can just dance out the stress of life with my friends. While it doesn't seem like much, it was something that I set aside for myself. If you would just take a second to think of all the things you do in a day, and all the things you do for other people, you would be amazed by yourself. You don't realize how much you actually succeed. Getting yourself to go to school in the morning is a victory in itself, along with waiting the extra second to hold the door open for a complete stranger, or even complimenting someone who you'll probably never see again. After you think of all of these things, take a second to think of something you've been dying to do, and set time aside for yourself to go and do that!

The truth about life is that you will be judged no matter who you are. There will always be someone out there that will not like you, or that will not agree with your actions. That's why when you're given such a short amount of time, you have to grab life, look it in the eye and tell it that you are proud of yourself. You don't have to be the most popular person that everyone looks to; you can just be your weird, crazy self that nobody, but you, will ever really understand. Take a chance! Treat yourself! You are incredible in more ways than you know.