To The Girl Graduating High School

My Dearest Friend,

You did it! You graduated high school! I am so proud of you! I hope you enjoyed it or at least endured it. I know that high school can be grueling and hard and I know there were a lot of late nights where you wanted to give up, but you didn't. Here's to all the sleepless nights, mental breakdowns, and all the times we complained about school work together but got it done anyways! Here's to the end of an era and the beginning of a brand new adventure!

College is an adventure you know. I've only been here a year but I can tell you it's completely different from high school. While it's unknown and maybe a little scary, I know you can do it. Look at how much you've done already! I can't promise you will be less stressed or that your life will be more organized and your future more clear. In fact, I can pretty much promise the opposite. You will be stressed. You will be disorganized. You will not know what you are going to do with your life. Despite this, you will be ok. I promise.

It will be scary, even terrifying, but you are not alone. You can always call me! Honesty, no one knows what they're doing and that's okay. You don't have to know. So go, make mistakes, make friends, and make memories. While you shouldn't waste your life, you shouldn't stress about making it perfect either. People will try to convince you that you can have your whole future mapped out, but the truth is, you don't know. You can't know what the future will hold. Scary right? Not really.

God has your life mapped out. He always has! He has brought you this far and will continue to lead you into your future. The hard part about college is giving God the control of your future. It is so easy to want to control your own life. I struggle with this every day. I want to know what my future holds. I'm afraid of doing the wrong thing and messing up my plans. When you give God control you can remember that it's not up to you. God's plan is perfect.

So don't worry if you don't know what you want to do or where your life is headed. Trust God to lead you. His plan is so much better than anything you could come up with on your own!

So as you cross that stage at graduation and get your well-earned diploma, remember that the best is ahead. You are so amazing and God has an amazing plan for you! It will be hard, it will be uncertain, but God's got you and His plan for you will be wonderful even if you don't know what it is yet! So good luck! You got this! More importantly, God's got this. Congrats!

Love,

Your Friend