To The Girl Who Is Trying So Hard

To the girl who is trying so hard,

Hey, girl. I'm sure you're running around and oh, so busy right now, but take a second and sit down. Breathe. Take a few minutes and let yourself take a quick break.

How are you doing? "Okay," you say? I know you're really not, but that's okay too. I know you're trying. Trying to keep it together, to meet all your deadlines, to take time for your personal life, to get more than five hours of sleep a night. You're trying to make school work with your job and your friends and your social life, and I know how hard that can be.

It's okay for you to be tired, but girl, you've got to take it easy before you get burnt out. You can only go one-hundred miles per hour for so long before your body gives up and you literally can't go any further.

I know you're trying. And you're doing fantastic. Trust me, you are doing great. Everything is going to work itself out, so you need to take some time for you.

I know you think you are holding it together, and you are, but I see past it all. You think that nobody knows your secrets. How quiet it gets at night when you're all alone. How you keep it together until you're by yourself and you shatter to little pieces. How when you do fall apart you don't even know how you are going to put yourself back together.

I'm here to tell you it's okay that you fall apart. I'm also here to tell you that you are not broken. Never think that. You are perfectly imperfect, and that's the best way to be. Trust me on that. It's okay. You're allowed to break down, and you don't have to be Miss Put-Together 24/7.

You are human. Remember that. You are allowed to make mistakes. I know that you don't think that you're allowed to, but you are. You should always try your best, but even if your best isn't enough, it is. If you give something your all, then that is good enough.

You put so much pressure on yourself to be a good role model, to make all the right decisions, to prove to the world that you are good enough to exist—I'm telling you are. You don't have to prove anything to anybody, girl, so you can take a second to breathe. Take a second for you. You are allowed to be selfish and live for yourself every once in a while.

I hope that this letter reaches you. I hope you look in the mirror and see yourself the way I do—strong, confident, intelligent, compassionate, beautiful. You are a goddess, and I hope that you someday can fully realize that. I hope that you can find it in yourself to let go of your regrets and your mistakes. That you don't focus on your "imperfections," but, rather, focus on your strengths. "We are greater than the sum of our parts" is the way that John Green put it, and I agree 100%. You are so much more than what you think you are. Take a breath. Take a break. Live.

Stay Safe and Stay Strong.

I believe in you.