To my Past Self,

Hey kid! How are you? I hope you're understanding things in school well enough because it only gets harder as you go -- it's totally worth it all in the end though. (Or so I've been told.)

I'm not a life expert by any means, but I feel like some things need to be said here. First of all, don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. You'll stay in your comfort zone for years and years until one day you decide to just push your limits a little bit. Let me tell you that the best thing that I ever did is step out of my comfort zone; if something bad happens then it's a funny story that you can tell later.

Next up, you don't have to have your future figured out. At the end of high school and at the beginning of college you'll get the impression that you need to know what you're doing with your life. I must have changed my mind five thousand times about what I wanted to do with my life between my Junior year and now. Honestly, I still don't know what I plan on doing in the future, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. All that I know is that I'm in a major that I enjoy.

Also, don't be afraid to say no to people. If you don't want to socialize with people after a long week then crawl in a blanket nest and binge-watch a show on Netflix instead. You'll thank yourself later.

In addition, try not to sweat the small stuff. I need to practice what I preach here because I am and probably always will be an anxious mess, but I'm slowly starting to realize that some things aren't worth getting stressed out about. For example that one embarrassing thing that you said five years ago really doesn't matter to the people who heard it. Honestly they probably forgot that you even said it -- I get it though; sometimes you just start thinking, the embarrassing thing hits you and you want to crawl under a rock for a while. It's normal; shake off the embarrassment and move on.

Finally, people in your life will come and go. You'll still root for them from the sidelines though and just know that no matter what, if they were to call you will still answer. Just remember that the people you meet come in and out of your life for a reason, and that it's perfectly normal to let go of something that just isn't working anymore.

That's all of the sage wisdom that I can really pass on to you, past self. Just know that you can't always do everything and that sometimes you'll make mistakes. When mistakes happen, just pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and move on!

Sincerely,

Future You

(P.S. That hairstyle you had in middle school? Not really feeling it. You'll get past that though.)