Dear high school me,  

Well, we’ve made it! By that I mean we’ve gotten that much closer to having our shit together. No more stressful ACT prep sessions, college tours, and worrying about eating lunch in a gross cafeteria. With college, comes a beautiful selection of activities and clubs to find a place of belonging, not to mention joining a sorority. Those high school friends of yours are going to walk down different paths, but coming home and hearing about the different dimensions of college life is never a bore. Plus, it keeps you well-rounded. 

I know there were a lot of confusing times that make you wish high school could be over.  In high school, you have to try to keep up an effort with kids that are unreliable, but just know that it won’t always be like this. People in college whom you have things in common with aren’t flakey. You will take from high school the knowledge that if someone constantly disappoints you, they aren’t worth your time anyway. You don’t have to keep up with them because the alternatives are scarce—there is a whole world of people your age trying to do the same thing. 

Your real friends from high school are going to be the ones that stick by you after high school, not the people that cancelled your plans for the night at 5 PM on Friday. I know how excited you are to eventually join a sorority, especially after hearing all of your counselors at overnight camp talk about how amazing it was. Having an automatic group of friends and people who are going to be there for you rules, and I assure you people will disappoint you significantly less. 

The old saying goes, “there are always more fish in the sea.” Well, in high school that doesn’t seem true. Going to school with the same boys from your missing teeth phase through your awkward side bangs and acne breakouts doesn’t exactly make you seem like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon in high school. Not to fear though, no one in college is going to know what you were like back then, so the only thing that they will see is your beautiful face and ~dazzling~ personality. 

You’ll have plenty of time to break out the black jeans and wedges that always made you feel super confident, I promise. College can be scary too, because now the next step is to actually figure out what you want to do in life, not just wear you want to attend the next four years of school. There are plenty of opportunities and cool classes that you didn’t get to take in high school, so eventually we’ll figure it out. Lucky for us, we have always had an idea of what we’ve wanted to do, so it’s just a matter of doing everything possible to make it possible. After college is the vast oblivion, filled with big adult challenges, so at least try to enjoy the time you have in high school, because you aren’t as close to facing that.  

Finally, keep positive. One thing that doesn’t change in college is unpredictability. That’s just part of life. So knowing that, try to take each day as it comes. Looking to the future is fine every once in a while, but by recognizing that every day is different (hence, a bad day could be followed by a good day and vice versa) it’ll help you keep a positive outlook. 

 Best wishes and good luck. As cliché as it sounds, get ready for the best four years of your life!