Dear Future Me,

By now, you have learned what makes you happy in this world. Hopefully, you have unlocked the secret to loving who you are and looking forward to who you want to be. I hope that you have an amazing job (we have never been one to want to work in a cubicle), have experienced love, have not given up helping and fighting for equal rights amongst every group of people, and that you own a small pig (or pug, I am flexible). Your happiness is important and valued, which is something that I am still currently learning, but am hoping that you know by the time you are reading this.

No matter what it is that you are doing right now, whether you are a surgeon, a professional stage manager, actress, or anything else, you are still a human being who must inspire change in our society. You are a symbol to any little girl who sees what you have become and what you stand for, and that is something that you should own with pride. Little girls, no matter what is happening in the world, will always need to be able to look up to someone that they can relate to, someone who displays how far strength, confidence, and intelligence can take you in life, and I truly hope that you are one of those amazing women.

I hope that you have made some crazy decisions at some point in your life as well. I hope that you have the two tattoos that you have always wanted and that you have pierced your ears again. I hope that you have gone sky diving and swam with otters, along with every other crazy, impulsive thing that you have wanted to do. Life is about taking those chances and having fun because nothing lasts forever.

I know that we have always had a plan: go to college, go to medical school, become a surgeon, fall in love, get married, buy a house and a pet, and live happily ever after. Life, however, never works out that way. That plan may change or go off the rails completely, and that is okay. Everything is and will be okay because the end goal, our happily ever after moment, is meant to happen, regardless of the path that you take. You are not the mistakes from your past, you are not a burden, you are a human being who is figuring out how to exist in this world, and that is all anyone can ever ask you to be.

I hope that you find your happy ever after.

Love,

Me