Dear Hailey,

Hi. It's me, your future self. The one you asked about a lot, wondering if I'd be okay out there. I am doing okay, and I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to you on that. I hope that I'm everything that you wanted me to be when you were trying to plan out what would happen next, and I hope that it would make you smile to see where I'm at now. I hope you'd be proud that this is where I am, that you'd brag about it and want everyone to know who you've become. I guess you could say I'm proof that it did get better. I hope you realize that now, that it's better, that we're better.

You always used to say that one day you were going to make it, and that people were going to regret saying that you were going to fail. I hope that I have begun to make that happen. I hope you know that the things that are happening to you right now are not forever, that we beat the odds, and that you're stronger than you think you are. I think you underestimate yourself and undervalue yourself, and I think that if you looked in the mirror you would see someone worth loving, even if the girl looking back at you is a little broken in some places. The bruises will begin to fade, but your scars will show everyone how strong you have been, and how hard you have fought for me to be where I am now.

I hope you know that I would not be here without you, because it's you that I'm fighting for. I'm fighting for the girl who doesn't know how to love herself, the girl who eats her lunch by herself in the locker room, the girl who questions her every move, and the girl who hides her face so that she won't have to talk to anyone. I wish you could see that girl now. Look who she became!

I'm always going to be fighting for you, I'll probably even be fighting for this version of myself one day, but you're the version of me that matters the most, the one that needed to be saved the most, the one who makes my story a success story. While I don't miss you, I'll never forget about you. I realize that you're the part of me that needed to exist before I could get here, so I'm grateful to you for making me this way, and that is why I'd never change a thing about you.

Thank you for making me into the best version of myself. Thank you for reminding me where and what I came from.

Love,

The latest version of you