1. How you allow yourself to be treated, is the way people will treat you.
If you let that person walk all over you, again and again, don't ever expect them to change their ways. They'll keep walking on you until you stand up and demand to be respected. They probably won't like that too much, but you'll feel a hell of a lot better once the next person comes along and looks at you and sees something other than some idiot they can take advantage of.
2. You're going to get your heart broken. Again, and again, and just when you think there's no way you can take it anymore, again.
It will come from the boy you expected it from in the back of your mind, from the person who was your best friend, from the girl you thought you loved. You'll regret it, you'll cry, you'll hate yourself and them for it. Just look at all of the people who hurt you as lessons learned. I promise it helps.
3. The answer to all of your questions is not at the bottom of that bottle of cheap raspberry flavored vodka.
No amount of liquor you're not supposed to have is going to fill the hole in your heart, and when you're laying on the bathroom floor in what's-his-face's basement, dizzy and sick to your stomach, you'll realize that those fourteen shots didn't make your problems any easier to solve.
4. Stop trying to act like you're okay when you're not.
This is like letting someone else plant a ticking time bomb inside your head. You never know when it's going to explode, and after the first time you burst into tears in your manager's office at work, you'll realize that all of that emotion turns to poison the longer you let it build up.
5. Some people are always going to be cruel, but that doesn't mean you have to be too.
You don't always have to see other people as competition, and your life will be much easier once you realize that. Look at other people who are succeeding as potential allies instead, because if we're being honest, we're all fighting on the same team here. Kill them with kindness, even if it feels like the hardest thing on the planet. If you're friendly and sweet and nice, they can't say bad things about you anymore.
6. The last place you should turn to when trying to get over a difficult breakup is the arms of a stranger.
Trust me, kissing someone that isn't the person you really want won't make you feel better. You'll spend the whole time comparing this person you're trying way too hard to convince yourself that you're into, to the one who broke your heart. And thats not fair to you or them. I've been on both sides of it. Don't do it.
7. Stop comparing your life to the lives of those you follow on social media.
You can't compare your lowest moments to the highlights of their lives. It doesn't work like that and I promise no matter how perfect their pictures are, they have just as many problems as you do. Stop feeling "damaged" because you're letting social media convince you that you'll never be good enough. Shut your phone off, appreciate the good things about your life and don't get so wrapped up in something that's superficial anyway.
8. Confidence isn't usually something that comes naturally.
You truly do have to fake it until it's real. So square your shoulders, take pride in how you look, and the body you have. If you do this for long, it eventually builds a sort of infectious self-esteem. Even if you don't always love everything about yourself, you ARE good enough. Knowing that will make it easier.
9. You can't date your best friend unless you are fully prepared to lose their friendship if things don't work out.
I don't care who you are, it's not possible to go right back to being best friends after a breakup, even if you end things on the best of terms. There will be feelings and tears and everything gets messy. It's awkward and it'll make you miss them. Tread carefully.
10. It is impossible to control every aspect of your life, and if you try, you will self-destruct.
Sometimes you just have to let your life happen to you, and make do with what you are given. Stand firm in your convictions, morals, and dreams, but don't try to micromanage everything in your life, because stress is a very toxic thing. It can make you physically sick. Take it from someone who knows - Take care of yourself.
11. You will lose friends. Lots of them.
They'll change, you'll change, you'll fight, you'll grow apart. The people by your side when you enter high school will not be the same people you spend every second with in college, I can promise you that. Don't hold too tightly to temporary people. If they were meant to be permanent, they would be.
12. You can't change the past, and trying to rewrite it will only get you in trouble.
Own the things that have happened to you, because if you don't, they then become things that people who want to hurt you can very easily use against you. And there is nothing worse than someone going back and reopening the wound of a painful memory every time they feel the need to make you feel inferior.
13. If you don't stand true to yourself and become your own person, you will get lost in the shuffle.
Even though everyone will tell you differently with judgmental remarks and snide looks, it's better to stand out than to fit in. No one truly fits in, it's all an act. Don't give in to it, don't subscribe to the ways of those who aren't confident enough to be 1 in a million, and don't ever let them convince you that you can't be yourself.
