To my high school self,

Four years. That's all it is, is four years. It is mind-blowing to think how much changes during those crucial moments of your life. Those friends you thought were going to be in your wedding one day because you pinky promised in middle school. Those tests and quizzes you cried over because you were so stressed to do well. Those relationships you thought were going to last forever because it was all you knew and you were so in love.

Well let me let you in on a little secret. A spoiler even. None of it matters!!!

The pettiness, the drama, the stress. It all disappears once high school is over. That friend who didn't invite you to the party she had? Who cares. That F you got on an APUSH test sophomore year? Irrelevant. That boy you swore was the one? Isn't.

That's the funny thing about high school. Everything seems like the absolute end of the world when it is happening. Your life is just a disaster that you cannot seem to put back together right? WRONG. Just because you are ready to move on from the vicious world of "high school" does not make you weak or an outcast. It makes you strong and brave and independent. It means you are ready to take on the world, the world outside of petty people and petty things, because let's face it: a synonym for "high school" is "petty."

Obviously, there are aspects of high school that I genuinely hope you cherished and look back on with utter happiness, but it is time to take those memories and multiply them here at college. That school spirit at every football and basketball game? Take it with you and find a girl who equally matches it and who is just as willing to crazily chant during Marist Welcome Week.

I just want to reassure you that college makes everything better. Some people think I am crazy for never wanting to leave this place, but I consider myself so lucky. College and Marist in particular is filled with an overwhelming about of people, opportunities and memories just waiting for me to find them. I have never met better people that I want to surround myself with and I thank God every single day that I stuck it out in high school to be blessed with the chance to meet and get to know these people I now consider my best friends.

Two months. I have been here for two months and I can already reassure you that those four years have nothing on the time I am going to spend here at Marist. Thank you high school for shaping me into the person I am, for building someone who knows she can handle the pettiness and the stress, for letting me know that I had outgrown you and was ready for my next adventure.

They say high school is the best four years of your life. I know now that that is false. I know that the best years of my life still haven't happened yet and seeing where I am and who is around me I am confident that if these next four aren't it, they will be pretty damn close.

Proud of you for sticking it out,

Marist Colllege self who simply cannot stop smiling