Today, I opened a letter I had written to myself a year ago. To give a little background- a year ago, I was one anxious, heartbroken, lost, and tired high school senior. It read:

Dear future self,

By the time you read this letter, your world will have changed completely. I pray you've gone where God has led and it has changed for the better. I hope you're happy in college- that you've made new friends, found a sorority home, survived the first semester and maybe even decided on a major- and that you're in a good and growing place in your faith.

Right now, I'm praying a lot to God about (that heartbreak and the people involved). I'm currently not speaking to (either of those people), but also have no closure or real peace about those situations. I pray God has worked in those relationships, experiences, and in your heart, and that you're past that chapter of your life.

If you've let yourself love again since then, I hope he's a Godly man and the relationship has truly been a blessing. I hope you found happiness as high school closed and gave a killer graduation speech.

I hope you've kept in touch with your high school friends.

I hope you did your best in your ending weeks of soccer. I hope you did well in the musical, or at least that you didn't fall. I hope right now, the moment you're reading this, is one of the best parts of your life.

I hope you're becoming the person God intends for you to be, and if you don't feel you are, then I hope this letter can turn that around. I hope you've made the best of it all, and found the peace, love, and happiness you've been praying for. Start another year with bigger and better goals.

Love,

Mary Day- January 8, 2017

I read it and I cried. High school me was right, my world had changed completely.

Thankfully, a lot of what I had hoped for had come through.

I had played my last soccer games to the best of my abilities. I had made it through three performances of Beauty and the Beast without losing my French accent, my slightly too big finale dress, or tripping down the stairs at any point.

I had conquered my graduation speech. I had ended my senior year happy. I had joined a sorority and made some amazing friends in my first semester of college. I had even made it through my first semester conquering the challenges of school.

However, some things did not go as expected.

I had healed from the previous heartbreak. I had finally found that closure and peace in those situations that I had been hoping for. But in my search for it, and many mistakes I made along the way, I had also inflicted and experienced more heartbreak.

Basically, it had gotten worse before it ever got better. If only I had known then that at the time of reading that letter, I would be in the middle of more heartbreak.

But old me knew me all too well. Old me knew that sometimes all I need is something like that letter to see that it is never too late to turn everything around.

Coming out of that heartbreak and overcoming my mistakes, I reconnected with high school friends I'd lost touch with in the past. I became less insecure about who I was and what I wanted and started moving forward positively.

This time, I wouldn't make the same mistakes. This time, I wouldn't hold onto the heartbreak. This time, I knew I could overcome what was in front of me, whatever it may be, because I had come so far from where I was a year ago, and nothing ever could or would make me go back. And I had wanted that to be the story.

Even when I had no clue what the next month, let alone 12 months would bring, I had wanted myself to move forward and to grow, because that is what we are called and created to do daily.

I had wanted myself to love again, even though it might mean more heartbreak. I had wanted myself to stay in touch with high school friends, even though I didn't know how far out of touch we'd continue to grow before the year ever ended.

I had wanted myself to learn to be genuinely happy, even though in the moment of writing that letter I couldn't imagine what that looked like. In the moment of reading that letter, I had almost forgotten how to be, and I just needed old me to remind me that new me knew better.

So stop whatever you're doing right now, and write. Write about where you hope to be a year from this day, in this moment, and these feelings. You will be so surprised by how much you've changed, overcome, failed, grown, lived and learned. And you will be most surprised by how much a word from that old you just might be what you need to continue to make a better new you.