THAT GIRL EVERYDAY: A letter to my younger self...

Savor each moment in your life; the good, the bad and the ugly.

I wish I could tell you life becomes simple when you grow up. It just gets more complicated. So do what you love and don’t forget to try out all the things you want because if you don’t you’ll never forgive yourself.

Take long walks to clear your head and to connect with yourself.Sing as loudly as you can in the shower.Travel alone, go watch and enjoy the wildebeest migration by yourself.Go to a restaurant alone and pretend to read a book so as to avoid awkward stares and to order from that new menu you’ve been dying to try out.Daydream about guys, models and celebrities who don’t even know you exist.Eat too much every now and then.Laugh till you cry.Volunteer, because it’s the least you can do to make the world a better place.

You don’t always have to worry about your future. It’s okay to just chill and enjoy the moment.

It’s going to be hard to live up to your dream while you get beat up every time by life as you’ll come to know it. It’s okay to feel lost, scared and confused no one really has it figured it out anyway.Just know there’s no wrong you can’t make right or better. No regret you can’t learn from. No heartbreak you can’t get over.More importantly, you’re not a loser just cause you lost and you’re not a failure just because you failed a couple of times.

People will have opinions of how you live your life. Some will have your best interests at heart, others won’t. Trust your conscience, your inner voice and your gut feeling. Yes, this voice may be wrong sometimes but at least you have your best interests at heart. With time the inner voice becomes clearer and the more you listen, the more you hear it.

Invest in good friends and family because you will need someone to love and take care of you when you forget to love and take care of yourself. Friendships do matter. You will lose touch with some friends and quite frankly you’re still learning how to deal with that.

You will begin to understand your parents have had nothing but your best interests at heart. You will understand just how hard they tried to raise you to the best of their ability. So forgive them for not being as perfect as you’d hoped for them to be because life as you know it has no manual or instructions.

You will struggle to find your identity and discover what you actually want in life. You will feel lonely. You will feel like you don’t think you know yourself, you don’t know what you want and no one understands you or what you’re going through. Sometimes only a piece of paper and a pen will truly listen to you and understand you. Unless you get writer’s block and you know that’s when your imaginary friends stop talking to you. When it gets to this point just grab a bottle of wine because it never really is that serious.

At some point, you will be all about the night life and it will be all the rage. Your excitement will wane after a couple of years. You won’t be the youngest girl at the bar anymore and hangovers will hit you a lot harder. That’s okay. You will prefer polite drinks in the house with a number of close friends. Yes, you will have the occasional night out but not as often as you’d like because you will now have responsibilities. It will get to a point where you will cancel your night out plans so you can deep condition your hair and watch TV with a bowl of popcorn. Yes, it will get to that stage. This doesn’t mean you’re no fun, your priorities will just be different.

It’s not black and white when you get older. In fact, so far most of your life has been a grey area. Do not forget to connect with your spirituality. Pray as much as you can. You were taught that you should ask God for what you really want. But over the years I have realized that asking God for what you want will not guarantee the fact that you’ll get it. He takes it as a friendly suggestion or thinks it’s a really cool story and does His will anyway. So when praying just ask for His will to be done in your life along with the strength to deal with it.

You will not say yes to the first guy who proposes to you. Crazy right? Considering you have your wedding all planned out in your head. You have your whole life ahead of you. So wait for the guy who knows you’re a blessing in his life. Pay no mind to impressive resumes, fat paychecks and cool sports cars. The older you get the more you will realize that the guy you should marry should be your best friend, challenge you and make you a better person among other reasons.

Relationships will become scary as you grow older. Your heart will be broken but this won’t change you. You’ll just become smarter with your choices. People you love and care about will betray you without explanation and leave you without your permission. Do not spend too much time analyzing the situation. At times you just have to drop everything and move on, closure is overrated. Do not make time for people who don’t have time for you. Be forgiving and understanding even when they don’t ask for your forgiveness for your own sanity and peace of mind. Just remember we do not choose what happens to us.

Do not sabotage your own happiness intentionally or unintentionally. It’s okay to be insanely and stupidly happy for no reason whatsoever. And when everything is going according to your plans just go with the flow and enjoy the moment because they don’t come easy. Enjoy the moment because it gets complicated at the worst of times. Trust me the saying ‘When it rains it pours’ is quite accurate. So make happy memories while you can as this is the only thing that will get you through the bad days.

Live your life. Learn to accept failure because you probably won’t get it right the first time. Just never give up and always remember you can never cheat the grind. Dare to live your life out loud. Say what you want, how you want it and where. Do not walk on eggshells around people.

Do whatever makes you happy. People will always instill doubt in your actions. So stop being ruled by the opinions of others. Follow your heart no matter how crazy it may be.

Your life is just that, your own.Don’t let anyone make decisions for you or tell you what to do.You don’t need permission to live your life.You do not need anyone’s approval to be happy.You do not owe anyone an explanation as to how you live your life.Never forget to claim and take up your space in this world because you deserve it love.

With Love, Your future self LNK.