See, remember when I wrote my last letter and talked about how great that year was? Yeah, well--it's about to get real, so sit down, shut up and take some freakin' notes.

Let's start off slow and talk about what's happening with your appearance right now. I get it that you're kinda bored of your short hair and want a change, but you're making growing it out so much harder than it needs to be. Seriously. You keep doing this thing where you grow it out just long enough to not have a shape anymore and then you panic and cut it all back off. This is doing absolutely nothing for you. It just makes your face super round. And dude, you really need to look into dying your hair if you're going to try and grow it out, because that mouse-brown color that happens naturally is going to make any 'in-between stage' you go through 8,000 times worse. Put some dark brown or cool colors in there and then let it grow. Or don't, because we both know you're not ready to part with it yet.

Your style has definitely plateaued, but I'm OK with that because keeping with the basics is working well for you. Just remember that while jeans and a t-shirt--or sweater--with your Converse is a nice go-to look, changing it up just a smidge isn't the worst idea. Also, it won't kill you to wear other shoes from time to time because you're basically shredding the rubber on the soles of those Converse and they're going to be completely trashed within months. (Not that this will stop you--we still own that same pair today and we're in our junior year of university.)

Now, into the nitty-gritty.

To be honest, I don't remember why you are so stressed out right now, but the fact remains that you absolutely cannot continue on like this. Those stomach pains you're having? Yeah, those are primarily caused by your ridiculously high stress levels. Yes, it's stupid. No, it's not fair. But do we still have to deal with it? You bet. So instead of panicking so hard about what you're going to need to do for your senior year and college, take several deep breaths and chill the hell out.

So what would I recommend that you cut out of your schedule to make your body stop hating you? That AP Calculus class that did you absolutely no good and made you cry at least once every two weeks would be an excellent candidate. Because even though you love the teacher and most of your friends are taking it--or are going to take it--that doesn't mean it's right for you. And we talked about this in my first letter to you, but I'll remind you again: you don't have to be good at every subject in order to be intelligent. Putting it plainly, you will never be good at math. Ever. And you'll try to take AP Calculus next year in order to raise your grade and you'll still struggle almost every night with the homework, even though it will be your second year with it. So stop wasting your time trying to prove to your teachers and classmates that you're 'good enough,' because in the end you're only hurting yourself.

On a lighter note, that AP English class you're taking? Go and kiss the ground your teacher walks on because she's the main reason we become English majors in college. And she's also the reason you'll be so far ahead of the game once you get to college in terms of writing papers and finishing reading assignments, which is definitely a good thing.

Your artsy side is starting to take shape, which I am really excited for--but you really need to work on your time management skills when you're completing projects for your art class. Seriously. Because your teacher doesn't mind a late piece once in a while, but eventually you're going to get so nit-picky and anal about every element of your projects that they'll all take forever and she's going to have to dock points for it. So stop that.

Now, about joining band your junior year...I'm sorry, even to this day I think it's hysterical.

Dude, you can read music just fine, but deciding to play the flute for a combined two semesters over the last two years of high school? And not even marching in the band? That's both the most ridiculous and the most genius things I've heard of yet. Seriously--you are awful, and yet you get to go every morning and 'play' music with your best friends for 90 minutes. And they let you go on the band field trip to Cedar Point?! I concede this point to you, my sneaky friend. You do you. (But I still don't understand why you bothered to go to Cedar Point because you and I both know we can't do rollercoasters.)

All in all, the main events were pretty great but you really need to manage your stress better and most importantly, learn when to quit something. If it's affecting your mental and physical health, just stop. No one worth your time will judge you for making those kinds of decisions and you don't owe it to anyone to suffer for academic purposes.

And now, some parting advice:

-Keep it up with tennis, even though you're crap at it.

-Practice parallel-parking the SUV because you'll end up taking your drivers' test in it.

-Spend as much time as possible with your friends because next year, we add boys.

-Don't forget to moisturize.

Love,

Future Alex