Sometimes you’ll feel like time is standing still and you’ll always be looking to the future for the next big thing. One day you'll be counting down to your high school senior year and before you know it you'll be applying to graduate schools. Time is fleeting. Slow down.

There’s a lot of wisdom that you'll acquire in your years to come and speaking of you should really get your wisdom teeth out when they tell you the first time. You’ll die a little inside every time you notice the crookedness of your bottom teeth that were once perfectly straight.

When Mom asks if your retainer still fits, lie until it does.

Please stop asking to get your haircut. The long bob doesn’t come into style until 2015 and trust me, yours doesn’t look like that. You will forever be saddened by the fact that you only have one photo of your toddler days that you don’t resemble a little blonde boy who wore a lot of Barney.

The seafood that you hate now will actually become your favorite which is a problem because you definitely can’t afford it. You’ll also develop a raging addiction to Starbucks.

We’re still working on kicking that one.

In Kindergarten, you will move to a small town that you will forever call home. It’s a town like no other where Friday night football is more of a religion and you call your teachers by their last name.

No Mr. or Mrs. just their last name.

It’s like our secret code that tells them we actually like them.

You’ll go through this phase where all you want is to get out and that’s okay. It will actually take you five months and $13,000 at a far-away university to understand just how awesome your home is.

When you’re five years old you’ll meet your best friends that 15 years later will be more like sisters. One will stand up for you to the class bully on your first day of school and insist that you can play too. The other – well you both suffered a short-circuiting of sorts because you bonded by bashing your head on your desk to distract the class. Mrs. Junkert will be very concerned. And to this day you have no idea why you did such a thing but you’ll use it as an excuse as to why you’re not good at math.

For the love of God do not lie to Mrs. Solum in 7^th grade about where you were during study hall. Your Principal will try to save you from turning into the troublemaker that was your older sister and give you ISS to teach you a lesson.

Also, thank him… because it worked.

You will forever be known to your classmates by variations of your last name or your first and last together – but never just Alli.

You'll have a love-hate relationship with this because on one hand you really like your name but on the other, it takes you back to a simpler time where real responsibilities didn’t exist.

That's another thing; one day you will have real responsibilities. Ever heard of school loans or a FAFSA? Did you pay your credit card on time? Oh, you just wait.

Remember that imitation is the greatest form of flattery when in 5^th grade your science project is copied. From there on out you’ll hate group work but many years later you’ll find yourself buried in homework unable to do your fair share on a Shakespeare project.

But he’ll put your name on it anyways.

You’ll get picked on a lot during middle school but don’t hold grudges. Every kid in middle school at some point in time is a complete asshole including yourself. And years later those assholes will be some of your best friends!

You can go months without talking to some of them but if you ever find yourself in a ditch you know if you called they’d be there.

You should also thank your sister for being such a rebel child because it showed you exactly what not to do but also how to have a good time without getting caught. Countless times you’ll wake up in the early morning hours to her tapping on your basement bedroom window to be let back into the house before Mom and Dad wake up.

You’ll be furious with her when you’re 16 and she doesn’t do the same for you. Don’t worry, you definitely shouldn’t have been at that party anyway.

And I’m sorry to tell you this but there won’t always be a “Mom and Dad” duo.

After a long night of hearing them fighting you’ll tell them to get a divorce already. Two years later they will and you’ll always remember that night and forever regret it.

Five years later you’ll know that it wasn’t by any means your words that did it but none the less it will bother you. Prom pictures will be hard and volleyball matches will never be the same without Dad in the crowd.

Keep your chin up, kid. It gets better.

Though your parents’ divorce will ultimately become a punch line to distract from the actual sadness it inflicts upon you, you do actually gain some great people out of it. You’ll gain a loving step-mom that makes your dad happy and puts up with his spontaneous hunting trips. And your mom will marry a man that will love you like his own daughter even though he doesn’t have to.

Oh, and forewarning - there will be a time that you'll be late for school on an icy morning and you’ll total your car. Don’t argue with Mom.

You totally deserve that lecture.

And a few years later you’ll be driving your friends home from a party and smack two deer. You deserve that one too. What were you doing out that late anyway?! Dad was right when he said nothing good happens after midnight.

You’ll continue to stay out past midnight.

You'll change your major and then change it back cause you'll always be a liberal arts junkie at heart.

You'll get your heart broken but that's OK because Mom always said, "Everyone needs one good heart brake in their life before you find the one."

Stop wishing for senior year to roll around. Your time is coming. Enjoy the madness of all the time in-between.

You have so much going for you, little girl, and it won’t always be easy. You’ll wrestle with some hard times but it all works out in the end.

Your retainer will eventually fit again. You'll learn to appreciate group work once you realize you just need to be the leader. Your hair will grow back. You'll get a new car - with full coverage.

And most importantly, you’ll learn a lot about who you are in the years to come and grow up to be a person you are genuinely proud of.

Enjoy these times my dear. Time is fleeting.

Love,

Alli

P.S. Mom was right about everything.