Dear Thirteen Year Old Me,

I know there is a 99.9999% chance you will never read this, unless someone discovers time travel, and even then, I wouldn't read this because that may create some sort of paradox and poof my firstborn child out of existence or something like that. But, anyways, my nerdy fascination with time travel aside, I am writing this letter full of things that I wish I could have told you and wish that I knew then.

First and foremost, life is so much more and gets so much better than middle school. There is a reason there is a popular book called "Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life," and pretty much every TV show or movie jokes about it. Middle school pretty much sucks universally. There are very few people you meet who will say, "Oh, I loved middle school. It was amazing." For most people, middle school is a time of awkwardness, hormones, and you being meaner than you care to admit.

Luckily, middle school is only three short years, and you will be out of there before you know it. Still, enjoy the good parts. Enjoy the school dances because you will end up missing them. Spend as much time with the people who are your friends now as you can because you lose contact with too many of them sooner than you would like.

Make sure you spend all the time you can with Gracie Mae and Haylie Bug while they are still teeny tiny. All too soon, Haylie will be ten and almost in middle school while Gracie is in kindergarten. Don't miss the special moments of being with them because you don't feel good or just want to be left alone that day.

Now, onto the part about life after middle school. High school is great. I'm not going to lie to you. High school isn't great all the time, and I would never tell you those were the best years of your life. They were good years, though. You made new friends, including people who are still your friends now, after graduation.

One of those friends, you did almost everything with, still, do when you go back home while on break from school. He helped get you your first job and gave you rides there almost every day. You also do fun stuff with him all the time, and even not fun stuff for fun. You two have seriously had fun walking around Walmart or Kroger and pointing at this item or that item, laughing.

You two take a day trip to an amusement park together. He and another friend go with you to take Haylie and Gracie to see Finding Dory . I don't even think Finding Dory has been announced yet, so there is another good thing in your future.

You have so many laughs and good memories in the school building and out. There are moments in different teachers' classrooms with different people you will treasure forever. You are Facebook friends with several of your high school teachers because they made such an impact on you.

You get back into a church and guess what, it's Sylvia Baptist. That's right. You end back up at the church you went to from about age six to age nine because God is good and life is funny like that. You get to go to a camp and do mission work in different states every summer. One year you go to Mississippi, the next you go to South Carolina, and the next you go to Alabama. You meet amazing people and get to serve in amazing ways on those trips.

You get to travel to one of the places that you have always wanted to go. In December of your senior year, you get to spend three days in D.C. You get to see the places history went down, visit amazing museums, see Arlington cemetery, ride on a subway, and see the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. One of the bet parts is, you got to do all of this with one of those amazing teachers I was telling you about.

Then you graduate. You make it through four years of high school in, what feels like, a shorter amount of time than your three years in middle school. You get to go and visit the elementary school in your cap and gown, and it is an amazing feeling. You walk up there, get your diploma, and you're out. Your years in that building are done.

Now graduation wasn't perfect. You were happy, but you were also sad. Right before graduation, you lose Papa, giving graduation a very bittersweet feel. All I can really say on that is that you do heal and start feeling better. Also, hug Papa every single chance you get. (Yes, I know you probably think that sounds like a lyric from Letter to Me. Don't worry, future you still does. I have been singing that song in my head the entire time that I have been writing this.)

You start college at a school that was not even on the list of schools you were considering until senior year. You wait until the last minute to confirm your enrollment, a horrible feeling. If I could give you one big piece of advice, it would be to stop your dang procrastinating. It does not help anything and makes you miserable, but anyways, you end up enrolled at and attending The University of Tennessee.

This school gives you new experiences you would never have dreamed of or even thought you would enjoy. A big one that I know you would get a kick out of is, you end up really enjoying football. Shocking, right? The atmosphere of going to a game or watching a game in the lobby with your friends is exciting, especially when it is a big game and we win at the last minute. Your heart races, and you get concerned about what is going on in the game.

There is so much more great stuff that I could go on about, but I will stop there. Just know, your life in the future is great. It isn't perfect. Bad things still happen, and you end up crying some nights.Despite this, it is good in the end, and guess what. This is only the beginning. There is still so much coming up in our life that 19-year-old me knows nothing about.

Lots of Love,

19-Year-Old You