The Friday nights, the cliques, the social status….high school can be a fun and exciting time for many young adults, and while some young adults are more serious, there are others who do not think about their future. I want to share some advice for young women and a piece of mind about starting early on becoming the woman you will one day want to be. Don’t look at this as some parental advice, but rather as advice from a freshman in college who understands the difficulty and temptation that some girls might experience every day.

Let’s start with the reason you are in school, and that is to learn. It is not okay to think that making average grades are okay. Sure sometimes life gets you down and you feel like just making a C is going to be okay; I’ve had my fair share of grades, but it is not okay to give up on school. Put your best foot forward because before long, you might be applying for college, rushing a sorority, trying for a campus position, looking for a career, applying to graduate school, law school, med school, dental school, YOU GET IT and they are going to be concerned about your grades. And even if you don’t plan on going to college, employers still may want to see your high school grades.

Another piece of advice I have is to stop selling yourself short. Stop selling your body short, stop selling your time short, stop selling your emotions short. Don’t give away these things to people (boys) who aren’t deserving or do not respect you. Sure, some relationships aren’t perfect, and sometimes you feel underappreciated, but the key word is SOMETIMES. If you’re constantly feeling less-than, if you never have the assuredness of your worth, then you should do some re-evaluating.

STOP THE POINTLESS DRAMA. No one cares if you’re a badass girl. No one likes girls who fight, that’s what makes you a girl and not a woman. Think about being a mom or role model one day, do you want your daughter or mentee to know that you’re a drama-filled girl who gets in fights? Probably not. The less drama and gossiping you participate in, I can guarantee you, the happier you will be.

Don’t base your value on other’s perceptions of you. You are beautiful if your inside is beautiful. It sounds cliché, but it is true. Don’t live to impress anyone but yourself, because you will always come up short. Make sure your heart is in tune before you ever start worrying too much about your outward beauty.

This is my challenge to all of you young women, who are trying to better themselves and become adult women: make sure your heart is in the right place, make sure you take time for yourself, make sure you’re not gossiping about others, make sure you are being the absolute best you. Don’t get too tired, and when you do, take care of yourself.

With love.