My birthday was last week; yes, thank you very much, I had a wonderful time. I turned 22, and I started thinking about my life leading up to being 22; and I was brought back to when I was in Middle School and thought life was terrible and pointless for the first time. This specifically happened when I was in the 7th Grade and 12 years old, (how convenient that it's exactly 10 years ago!). The 7th Grade was the first bad year of my life, I had lost friendship that I thought would last forever, I had several awful teachers, and I gained a lot of weight; so suffice to say not a good time. And looking back on that time I really wish I could talk to my younger self, but since time travel isn't possible, yet, this will have to do.

Dear 12-year-old Me,

I bet you don't really recognize yourself, do you? You became so much taller, puberty, you became so much thinner, and you're not eating garbage all the time. Yes, you lose your hair, yes, it does suck, yes, you will get over it... eventually. But your changes are more than just skin-deep (but you're smart, you can figure that out for yourself). You're going to stop thinking you're going to be a cartoonist for your career; I know, you thought you were going to be the next Charles Schultz but this is the year you realize you're not a very good artist and you are not going to want to put in the time to become one, sorry. You're going to choose a career that you never thought you'd choose: teaching. Please, don't become upset with this news, I know you vowed to never go back to school once you got out of college, but I have news for you: High School isn't bad, in fact, you actually enjoy it for the most part. No, I'm not lying. School isn't terrible. You know you've always loved learning, and when you get to high school you're going to have teachers who love teaching and you will find out you have a passion for it too. And also a passion for literature. Your English teachers will be the best teachers you have and make reading fun again for you which is something you thought might never happen.

And yeah, this is all great, life will be better, but life will also get tougher at points. You'll start getting depressed, you'll start having anxiety attacks, your heart will get broken several times, but that's a part of growing up; Mom is going to say that a lot to you, just be prepared. Things will seem bleak, just as bleak as they seem now, but having gone through the terrible year you're going through right now, that reminds me that things will always get better.

And I've saved the best things for last. You're finally going to live out your dream of being on stage and making people laugh and cheer, you're going to make even better friends who will stick with you through everything, and you're going to find the love of your life. So you have a lot of stuff to look forward to.

Best wishes (even though I know what will happen),

22-year-old You