An Open Letter To My Younger Self (I Promise You Everything Will Be Okay)

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Hey you. Quit rolling your eyes at this letter and take the time to actually read it and maybe even take something away from it. Hindsight is 20/20, right?

1. Be nicer to Mom. 
You can be a real witch sometimes, you know that? Give it a rest or you will spend most of your teenage years fighting with the one person who loves you more than anyone else in this world ever will. You will later regret all the years you wasted being so rotten to her, so be nice now. Get to know her now. Learn as much as you can from her now. Love her better, this instant.

2. Dad is always right and always there.
You secretly have a hunch about this one being true already, but you’d never admit it. Stop learning everything the hard way because you’re too damn stubborn for your own good and just listen to him the first time, you’ll save yourself a lot of frustration and won’t have to hear him say “I told you so.” Also, you may not know it now, but he’s your go to guy for everything, whether it’s a flat tire or a broken heart, he knows how to fix it.

3. Trust in your siblings.
Stop the scraping with your brothers. You don’t know it yet, but they will soon become your very best friends and you will wish that you were all on each other’s sides much sooner.

4. “He is not the sun, you are.”
You will fall in love for the first time at seventeen and later he will break your heart. There will be a few others who come along after him, whom you will love even harder and who will hurt you just the same. It’s okay to feel sad, but it is absolutely not okay to feel worthless, to feel like you won’t survive, to ache until you’re sick over him. You will be okay, for he is just a boy. Chin up baby girl, “he is not the sun, you are.”

5. It’s okay to outgrow people.
People change, they take separate paths in life, and often they grow apart. Whether it is a friend, a lover, whomever, sometimes people just stop “clicking” with each other and they go their separate ways, leaving one another behind. It’s nothing personal, it’s just life. Learn to gracefully let go of people and or things that no longer make you better or bring you joy.

6. Self-love is so important.
Quit picking yourself apart in the mirror and obsessing over the fact that you’re not a size zero. Life is hard enough without you being so hard on yourself all of the time. Trust me when I say, the most important friend you will ever make is yourself.

7. Remember the one year rule.
If what you’re dwelling on now will not matter one year from now, stop letting it bother you now and work on letting it go. You have everything a human being could possibly yearn for, good health, a loving family, genuine friends, and a beautiful home. If it’s not affecting any of the things I just mentioned, it’s most likely not that important.