I blinked, and all of the sudden, my freshman year of college was over. Finished and flown away with the other 19 years of my life. Before I know it, graduation will be around the corner and my impending entrance into adulthood will be breathing down my neck.
I always thought I had time--that being an adult would never actually, really happen. I figured I could bum off my parents for the rest of my life. But alas, they have made my reality quite clear that soon, I'll be on my own. Everything seems to be happening so fast that I oftentimes have to remind myself to breathe. As I continue further along this path of life, I'm blown away by how much I still don't know. I have no idea what I want to do with this lifetime yet. I always thought that high school was the time when you figured it all out--what you want to do, what your dreams are, what kind of person you are. I was so wrong. I'm still learning new things about myself every day. But the good news is: that's okay. There is no timeline which you have to follow. However, there are some things that I know, at least, I should be telling myself a lot more often.
1. You will make mistakes--that's okay.
A part of finding yourself and learning is making mistakes. You are not perfect and life isn't always perfect. Go through things and grow through things. You are not the sum of your mistakes, you are what you learn from them.
2. Be selfish.
Now is the time to experience--to take chances and open new doors. Focus on yourself wholly, chase dreams while you are young.
3. You are not for everybody.
You will come across people in life who simply will not like you, and sometimes there is just nothing you can do about that. Continue to love yourself anyway. Don't alter yourself to please other people.
4. Choose happiness.
I think it is so important to live each day consciously, choosing to block out the bad and accept the good. I have no desire to look back on this time in my life and only remember what I was unhappy about.
I think we all know that life can get crazy and hectic, and sometimes it's simply exhausting to live. So much can change in the blink of an eye. But I also believe with my whole heart that it is so important to cherish the small moment in life--the ones we think we won't remember: spending time with my parents, that feeling I get when I hear a really great song for the first time, that first night after winter when it's finally, finally warm and you can feel summer coming. I know that I want to remember those things, not all of the things that made me sad, whether that be a bad grade on a test or not getting that text from the boy you like.
In your life, you will achieve so much more than those things. You are not defined by small failures, you are what you learned from them. I can only hope to pass this mindset on to my own children one day.
