To My Feshman Year Self,

I want you to know that it is OK if you feel lost at first. Don't worry, it goes away.

Eventually you will find your place, but you will go down a few different paths and life will take turns that you never expected it would.

You won’t know what you’re doing for a while, but every day you are a little bit closer to figuring it out. You will face situations you've never had to face before and by doing this, you are growing. You are constantly growing from the moment your parents drop you off the first day and every day after that.

Classes are hard. Like, really hard. They will be more challenging than high school, and at first it will feel very overwhelming, but everyone figures out how to manage their work.

You will meet people, become friends, and at one point think they are your best friends. In some cases, this may be true, but in others, you will learn a very important lesson. The lesson is this: be very cautious whom you give the title of being a “true friend.” When you are pushed out of your comfort zone, you will cling onto people you feel comfortable with, but because of this, you don't exactly know who these people are. Take some time to make sure you are becoming friends with someone based on their character or else you will learn it the hard way.

You will get hurt by people you never thought would hurt you. You will get your heart broken and it will hurt like hell. But you know what? It all makes you stronger. It builds you into the person you are meant to be. It adds to your purpose here because you are forming who you are. It guides you to the next person you love and it teaches you how to love.

Loving others is the most important thing you will do in this lifetime and people are learning how to do that. You will never understand the importance of your situations in that very moment, but you will one day with time and you are a better person for it. You will be loved better and you will love better because of it. When you love someone, you will find peace. When someone loves you, it makes you everything you are meant to be.

You will meet girls that will one day stand next to you on your wedding day as your bridesmaids. One day, you will meet the man you are going to marry, but let fate take its course. Do not force anything and make a relationship something it isn’t mean to be. You will end up with the person you are meant to be with, so let it all happen naturally. Do not rush and let yourself get to really know someone. Get to know the little things about a person because that is what makes them the person you fall in love with. Be cautious and guard your heart.

You will find a community that feels like home. It may not be at first, but you will eventually find yourself in the comfort of an environment you start to call “home.” The community is your family, but this doesn't mean you forget where you came from. When you are away, you build an immense appreciation for the parts about your home that you do not have when you are gone such as your family. This appreciation is for your hometown and the people that inhabit it. They are an important reason you are where you ended up.

I want you to know that challenges and hardships are what make you grow. They guide you into the person you are supposed to become. You are currently “finding yourself.” I never knew what this meant, but now I feel like I am figuring it out. You will never be able to guess what you will go through, but it makes you stronger. You will look back at the person you are in high school and be in awe of how much you have grown as an individual. That is something to be proud of. Life is a crazy and beautiful journey, so enjoy all that it has to offer. Not everything will be easy, but it is all worthwhile in the end.

Sincerely,

The Girl You Are Now and Are Still Learning To Be