After not reading "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" for a couple of years, I had completely forgotten how #relatable and real the book is. A few nights ago, my roommate and I decided to watch the movie version (we are taking a small break from "Full House" and "The Office").

It was brought to my attention that this story really explores social anxiety caused by sexuality, domestic abuse, rape and falling in love. I decided that anxiety is not only just prevalent in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," but in college, too. Here are 5 things we can learn from "The Perks of Being A Wallflower."

1. Find something that motivates you in a good way.

Everyone is dealing with social anxiety. Some more than others, but you get the gist of it. Charlie (the main protagonist) has obviously been affected by many horrible things in his short life, yet in the end everything worked out in the best way possible for him. Basically, in times where we find ourselves having no desire to go out or hangout with friends or do life in general, we have to find the motivation to keep pushing forward. Also, shout out to Charlie with finding some solid musical motivation. Heroes by Bowie makes me feel pretty infinite, too. RIP.

2. Find genuine friends.

Social anxiety to me is feeling like “the weird one” and that no one around is interested in being my friend. But as much as our thoughts tell us differently, there is always someone that wants to be our friend or thinks we are cool. Find that person and hold onto them -- having someone to be yourself with and not feel weird about doing it is a wonderful thing, people!

3. Free yo’self.

Once Charlie started to let down some of his walls, things really took a turn for the better for him; he fell in love, he was no longer embarrassed of how much he loved to read and write, he made good friends, he finally came to grip with what truly happened with his Aunt Helen, and he decided he did not need to write in his journal anymore because he wants to “participate in life.”

4. What doesn’t kill ya' makes ya' stronger.

I have dealt with my fair share of anxiety -- socially and emotionally. I know how hard it is to fight the voice in your head that literally wants to rain on your parade every day, but when I saw "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," I came to the realization that we are all going through it in some way. We all have to come to terms with the hands we were dealt. Instead of letting our baggage get the best of us, let’s let it define us in a positive way. We are stronger people because of our baggage!

5. Don’t be afraid to love.

OK, we are in college now. Most of us have felt some type of heartbreak whether you were in love with someone or your cat ran away. Heartbreak scares us into thinking we will never feel real love again- therefore we don’t let ourselves feel real love again. Eventually though, you meet someone new and everything you thought you knew about love changes completely. How do we let ourselves feel love for someone after someone else ruined it for us? We have to stop being scared of what could happen and, instead, be excited for all the wonderful possibilities. I think life is a never ending cycle of losing and gaining, and rather than dwelling on the lost we should always be looking forward to what we will gain next.

From the wise words of Stephen Chbosky:

“So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.”