Dear High School Me,

Take it slow. Take your time going through all this. They say that high school will be the best four years of your life, and I can promise you that is completely not true. Granted, I have only been a high school graduate for a few months and I have just finished my first semester of college. But I can already tell the time I'm having here is way better than the times I've had in high school.

Middle school was definitely a rough time and place. Actually, I think you get the same response about middle school from anyone you ask. That makes your expectations for high school to be way higher. Yes, you have a lot more freedom. But you still have to think about the fact that every year matters.

You will be asked on a daily basis throughout the four years of high school where you want to go to college. Then, following that question, you will be asked what you want to study when you go to college. Don't over think this. Being asked this as a freshman in high school is overwhelming. I didn't even know what I wanted to do the beginning of my senior year. You're going to want to be a writer. But after constantly hearing people tell you you're never going to get a career and you're never going to make money off that, it's going to discourage the shit out of you and you're going to give up on that. Then you're going to take two Social Science classes and completely fall in love with them, Sociology especially. The one thing I need you to remember is to never let anyone talk you out of what you're passionate about. If you know you're going to be happy making just enough, than that is so much better than making a lot but hating what you do.

Not only are you going to struggle with what you want to study or do when you're done, you're going to struggle academically. Wise words of advice: study your ass off. Take more time in your schoolwork and actually pay more attention in class. You're going to wish you did this way more when you get your final transcripts to give to the colleges you will apply to. Along with struggling academically, you need to work so you can make money so you can pay for college. Work as many hours as you can, but don't forget all the homework and studying you have to do.

You're going to realize you're constantly exhausted and overwhelmed with all the work. Then you're going to give up and take multiple low grades for it, causing you to label yourself to everyone as a bad or stupid student.

This is a lot to take in, I understand. You're going to have a lot of moments where you want to break down or you actually do break down.

But please know this: you make it.

You graduate high school. You get accepted into seven out of the eight schools you apply to, one of them being you're #1 Dream School. And you want to know something better? You go to your Dream School. You go there and you have so much fun making new friends and you fall in love with the school the longer you stay there.

High school will suck most of the time. You're going to scream about it and tell everyone how much you hate it. But it goes by quicker than you think. The main things I need you to remember are to take your time, calm down, and get yourself to do the work. And in the end, you're going to love where you go to college and what you're going to be studying. I promise you that.

Love, The You Who Got Through It