I am young, reckless and yes, I can be quite stupid sometimes. However, I need everyone to just take a chill pill and remember that I am smart enough to be able to understand the difference between right and wrong. There are very few people that are allowed to tell me what to do and how to act and chances are, you aren't one of them. In fact, I probably still won't take the advice of that select few because I am young and oh so stupid. If you aren't my parent or my best friend, I really do not need your input on my life.

I'm going to tell you a story. It's funny, I promise.

Shortly before moving to college, I went to the city with a couple of friends and on a whim, I decided to pierce my nose. Seems like a pretty normal 18-year-old thing to do, right? I thought so, too. However, most 18-year-olds would not call their mother to tell her that they were going to put another hole in their body, and then do it anyway even after she gives a couple really good reasons not to. Fast forward to three months later, I decided to change my nose ring and as you can probably imagine, it hurt really bad and with my luck, it ended up infected. This kids, is karma at its finest. Do you think I told my mom? Of course not. I was not about to listen to her say, "I told you so," and continue to make fun of me until I did something that was worthy of even more ridicule. Granted, she now knows but it took pretty much every fiber of my being to tell her because I knew exactly what was coming.

Moral of the story: I was told not to do something by someone very high on my list of favorite people and surprise surprise, I still did it. I did it because I wanted to and I learned a very valuable lesson from it. This is what happens when you let stupid kids make their own mistakes. We learn and we grow. This is why I need everyone to just leave me alone. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that I won't listen to you when you're trying to explain why I'm making a huge mistake. I'm also not saying that I won't appreciate your concern. What I am saying is that in most cases, if I want to do something, there isn't much that will change my mind.

I, like so many other college kids, would never openly (willingly) admit to knowing that I'm wrong. ALL. THE. TIME. Yes, I do definitely know that that is the case but that doesn't mean that I want to actually own up to it. I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I know I could be making better, less impulsive decisions, I do not need you to keep telling me that. You're basically just wasting your breath because I'm going to continue making my own mistakes. I also need you to realize that I'm not making these mistakes because I am just that dumb, I do it because I want to. Sometimes I want to make a mess of my life because it's reassuring and as weird as it may seem, it makes me almost proud knowing that I can clean up my own mess. Please, do not think that I don't treasure your opinion or feel as if you shouldn't have one, I just don't need you to constantly make sure that I know how you feel about how I'm living my life. Just because I cherish every single person in my life, that doesn't mean that they all have the qualifications to tell me who I should be.