Dear 16-year-old me,

I know it seems like life is never gonna get better at this point. You're frustrated and stressed and you really don't know where anything is going to go from here. But in just three short years you'll be an entirely different person in an entirely different place.

In three years you will:

1. Be attending one of the best public universities in the country. And while at times it might not feel like it, you deserve to be there. Santa Barbara will change your life for the better. Like Mr. Emam said in your yearbook, 'You're smarter than you give yourself credit for.' Once you go to college you'll start to believe it.

2. Be best friends with a handful of people you haven't even met yet. These will be your people. You will be able to go to them for anything and everything. You're going to love them more than you could imagine and they're going to make your college experience incredibly memorable.

3. Experience both heartbreak and incredible increases in happiness. You're going to go through some things that make you feel awful. But then you'll have some experiences that come of the tragedy, that make it all worthwhile.

4. Gain unimaginable confidence. Sometimes people will see it as bitchiness, but you won't care, because you're just being your most honest self.

5. Finally understand what it means to grow up. Every step until this point has felt like a leap. You've felt like an adult for a while now, but now you'll start to become one.

Long story short, you get older and life gets better. You might have lost some people but you've gained some too. So if somehow 2013 me is reading this, kick it. Life goes on.