Dear Every Single Senior Girl Who Just Graduated High School,
This is not the end of the road. An era is not coming to a close and the best years of your life are not over. All that is ending is high school. You will still be the same person that you always were, even when you're in a new place, surrounded by new people. You will still have the same friends, as long as they're your true friends. The best years of your life have yet to come. They're still happening to you.
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For those of you who spent high school constantly changing, you're just that much more prepared for what's to come. I started my freshman year of high school and ended it as two completely different people. My dreams had changed, my passions were different and I had a new group of friends by my side. Now, a year later, my group of friends has changed all over again and I can't believe that I once thought that the person I was in my small town was the person I was always meant to be.
You are so much more than your high school self. You are not defined by whatever label a group gave you. You are not a box and you have so many more than just six sides to you. Nobody will ever know who the real you is-not the people who you went to high school with, at least. They don't know the changes that you're about to undergo. And the friends that you make in college won't know where you came from. The only person who knows exactly who you are and why you are the way that you are is yourself.
Do not allow what a group of mean girls said about you to define you. They don't know you, and if they spent an ounce of their time trying to tear you down, it's because they're jealous of you. They envy the fact that you're confident in yourself and do not require validation from anybody else, especially them, to feel good about yourself. They hate the fact that you have a brilliant future planned out before you and that you are going to do whatever it takes to reach your dreams. They despise everything about you, and that fills them with the urge to try to tear you down. They want you to feel like a lesser version of yourself so that they can feel better about themselves.
Every insult that ever came your way means nothing. Take those words and crumble them up. Throw them away and do not give them a second thought. Because the people who said those things about you probably felt that way about themselves. When somebody points a finger at you, they have three more pointing right back at them.
If you're not going to allow the negativity from your fellow girls tear you down, then you definitely aren't going to let a guy tear your down. That's just foolish. You're a powerful, brilliant and beautiful girl. No guy will ever have the power to change that. It doesn't matter if you went to your senior prom alone or if you never had a date in high school. It doesn't matter if you had a steady boyfriend all through high school and things just didn't work out towards the end. It doesn't matter if you had a different boyfriend for every milestone in your high school career. A boy does not define you. Do not ever let them feel like they have the power to do so.
Boys and friends do not have any power over you. And the adults in your life who never truly believed in you don't have any power either. Just because they didn't understand the way that your brain worked doesn't mean that you are not something special and destined to do great things. Einstein's teachers wanted him kicked out of school and look at all that he did.
The doubts that you are feeling at this moment in time mean nothing, by the way. You're just scared about the change that is coming. You're used to walking the same hallways that you've walked for the last four years. You know all of your teachers and they know you. You're bonded with the people that you've been going to school with since kindergarten.
That sense of security is the reason that you have to get away. You cannot stay where you are comfortable for the rest of your life. You have to force yourself to live outside of your comfort zone. That way, you can truly grow. You will develop into an amazing person who is so much stronger than you ever thought you could be. And the entire cause of that will have been the fact that you were willing to take that first step.
Life is all about the risks. So take as many as you possibly can. Go out on a limb. Take chances and do not be afraid of failure.
Run outside in the pouring rain with your best friends and dance like nobody's watching for one last childhood antic before you have to become an adult.
Flirt with the boy that you've been eyeing all through high school at a graduation party because what are the odds you'll see one another afterwards if it doesn't work out how you wanted? Besides, isn't it better to know exactly what could have been, instead of wondering "what if" your entire life?
Challenge yourself to try new things and never say the words "I can't." Remember that even the word "impossible" says, "I'm possible." Do not live in fear of consequences because the worst that can happen is that you fail. Failure just means that you learned that much more.
Take a midnight drive to a diner and order the greasiest food you can find on their menu with an extra large milkshake. Sit there with your best friend for hours and talk about all of the memories. Talk about the stupid fights. Talk about the fears. Plan to keep in touch, wherever your lives are going to take you.
Stay up all night talking to somebody. Anybody, it doesn't matter. Let them know exactly what they mean to you. You'll regret it if your last conversation with them didn't involve them knowing that they really were important to you and that you really were grateful for the chance to know them.
Thank the teacher who helped you find your way. A semester of college will have you appreciate and respect the high school teachers who put in the extra work to get to know you and really help you.
Hug your parents extra tight and make sure they know that you love them and really do appreciate everything they've ever done for you. When you're away at school you learn to appreciate them just a little bit more and regret all of the fights you've had with them.
