To the girl who’s ready for her life to start,

First of all, I want to start by telling you that you have time. Your life has just begun; you have a whole lifetime ahead of you. Don’t be in a rush to start living.

Now, you’re probably wondering how someone who is in exactly the same position as you can tell you what to do and think. The answer is because I am in the same spot as you are, I can’t wait for my life to start and I need to take a breath and slow down.

I remember growing up and hearing that being in college will be the best time of your life and to embrace it fully. I never really understood that until I went away to college. Suddenly I was surrounded by people who were interested in the same things as me and let me be 100% myself. I’ve met so many wonderful people and have learned so much from them and the experiences I’ve had so far. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

And yet, here I am. Only two years into my college career and ready to start my new life as an adult. I know that it’s going to be hard and sometimes it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, but I’m excited.

I hear about more people I know getting engaged and beginning a new chapter in their lives. Most of these people are older than I am, but there are a few who are the same age as me and I can’t help but wonder what it would be like if that were me. It’s crazy to think about, that if my life had taken a slightly different route I could be planning a wedding now. It’s something that I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about lately.

Here I am, 20 years old and already dreaming about a settled down life.

And as much as I want it to happen and know eventually it will, now isn’t my time. Someday I will meet someone I want to spend the rest of my life with, get married, and then have a family, but that’s not where I am in my life yet. There’s still so much I want to do and have to learn before that can happen. I still want to see the world and travel, meeting new people and seeing new things. Planning a wedding would only get in the way. If someone were to walk into my life tomorrow, or two weeks from now, and they just happened to be the person I’m destined to spend the rest of my life with, then I would begin thinking about the rest of my life. But I don’t know if that’s going to happen within the next year or even the next five years.

My life is so crazy and unplanned right now that I don’t know where I’m going to be in two years, let alone five. Right now I am living life a few months at a time, enjoying the opportunities as they present themselves. I’m not worried about what my life will be like in the next few years because I can’t control it.

Which is exactly what you need to do.

Stop thinking ahead to what is un-promised, focus on what is going on in your life now. Don’t worry about what may or may not be coming in the next couple of years.

You have an entire lifetime to wonder and worry about the way your life is going to play out. Life will throw you curveballs and put up roadblocks in your way, your job is to find out ways to swerve and get past these setbacks.

This is something I have to tell myself every once in a while. I’m still young, I have time to figure out the details. There’s no rush to decide what I am going to do with my life for the next fifty years, there’s no way I can control or plan that far in advance. So, as I continue to live on this little blue planet we call home, I’m going to live one day at a time.

I don’t know when my life is going to change and neither do you. So I’m telling the both of us to stop worrying and start living.

We only get one shot at this life, so why spend all of it worrying about something we can’t control?

Sincerely,

A girl who tells herself to slow down everyday