If you're reading this, I'm sure you're confused. You're the good one--the successful, open, happy one.

But are you?

There are so many things expected of you. Even if people don't say it--they feel it. And you feel it. However, in your heart you know you put just as much pressure on yourself. You tell others not to worry, just to do the best they can. Why can't you grant yourself the same school of thought? It's not always easy to have all your sh*t in a line. Who actually does anyway? So, to you, I'm here to tell you--it really is OK.

Adulthood is a scary thing. We spend years trying to be independent, not wanting to listen to our parents or family because what do they actually know about anything and I'm 18 and I can get a tattoo if I want to. As I've gotten older, though, I've realized that it's not so much about trivial things like that. Our parents tell us these things--make rules and set boundaries--not to stop us from "being our true selves" or whatever we believed they were preventing at the time. It was to teach us that in this life, we make decisions.

It's all about decisions.

Regardless of who we are or what our history is or how much we think that every decision we'll make will be the right one, that's not reality. Sometimes, you're dumb. A huge, unbelievable, I actually can't believe I did that dumb person. But guess what. That's OK too.

Why? It's because we do know what boundaries are; and, surprise, surprise, boundaries are meant to be broken. Our parents knew this. They knew that one day their little child would say screw it and do something insane. They wanted a story--a crazy, "I was 20 and had an amazing life" kind of story. And they were scared, because they remember feeling the same way. They did it too. They knew how we would feel before, during, and after and that really nothing they could say could stop it from happening. Why?

Because we're just people. People aren't perfect, even if you've spent your whole life trying to prove something different to yourself.

Allow yourself to be human.

The world did not end. Reflect, but don't stress. There's nothing left to do now, except--

tell your story.