Dear younger me,

Hello, it’s me you much older self. I just wanted to write to you and give you some advice and hints on how your life is going to be when you are older. I know you already know this, but you have a pretty great life, and it just keeps getting better. But there are some things that you will have to learn the hard way, and some experiences that you will not want to go through, but you do.

As much as teenagers say they hate high school, you will not be one of those people. High school was some of the best years of your life. You followed in the footsteps of your favorite TV characters (and yes by the way you still love One Tree Hill, even at 25 years old) and tried out for the cheerleading squad. You will do this from sophomore year till the middle of senior year; and while it was some of the best years of your life, cheerleading was also some of the hardest times. This is the time where you really realized that you were not meant for petty drama. Ultimately you realized you needed to stand up for yourself and devote your time to what really makes you happy, which was theatre. You had the courage to finally audition for the shows while in high school, and this is where you met some of your best friends. Just like now, theatre was a huge part of your life in high school.

You did a lot of other fun things in both high school and college, and you become friends with many great people. Some of them you are still friends with, while others are no longer in your life. But through all this you really learned who your real friends are, and those are the ones that are still there by your side to this day. Mom said something to you when you were in high school, and you never really took it in until you were older and realized how true it was. You had the biggest crush on one of your best guy friends, but you never admitted it. That is one thing I wish you would have done. It might not have changed anything, but now we will never know. She also told me that either we would end up together and still in each others lives, or we would drift apart. Unfortunately, the second thing was the thing that happened.

Speaking of boys and liking people, I wish that you would have allowed yourself to take chances and admit to yourself that boys did like you. A boy liking you is a good thing, and I wish you would have accepted it more when people said “ oh man he really likes you.” Though you didn't date a lot in high school or college, please don’t ever change the morals that you have and the way you do things. You will be placed in many situations where you could do some not great things, but please always remember what you believe in and who you are. Even at 25 you have envisioned your dreams of how a relationship should be, and I just hope you keep a hold of those dreams.

Promise me that you will never change who you are. You are a strong willed, big hearted person, and I just hope that all the hardship and stupid stuff you will go through won’t change that. Stay true to who you are and what you want, and always chase after your dreams. Don’t be afraid to try new things, and always be proud of who you are. Remember that everything you will go through happens for a reason and will help to teach you something.