In seventh grade my teacher had us all write letters to our future selves. The letters were sent out and mine arrived during my first semester at Rowan. It was crazy to read what I thought would be important.

The question “what would you tell fifteen-year-old you” came up the other day, and I couldn’t help but try to think of an answer that would help out future Julianna. I needed something that would be helpful, but not give too much away that I would worry. Something that would make me not so afraid of my impending life, but make me excited for it instead.

Having that question asked and then receiving that letter; I was inspired to wren-year-old self a letter. I learned so much from this one letter that didn't even take up two pages of text. Long story short, this is what it boiled down to:

"Don't regret what once made you happy, just learn from this. Learn how you should be treated, and don’t tolerate anything less. You will want to travel, you will get so tired of being where you are and learn that you want to experience life. Travel girl! Go see the world while you are still young and have money, time, and freedom. Please take care of yourself and treat yourself with kindness, because these upcoming years are going to be great but they’ll be tough. And always remember; Don't miss out on life because you’re too scared to live."

While it was longer than this these were the key points that I would want fifteen-year-old me to know. While they are not necessarily good to future me at this point in life, it did make me realize the things I still have to work on in my current life. Everyone is learning from their past, but what would you learn from your future self?