Dear freshman year self,

You can’t even fathom what you are about to get yourself into. When I first attempted to write this letter, I drew a blank. I wanted to write about every amazing and horrible memory, every life lesson I have learned and every piece of advice I have to pass forward. Overwhelmed with possibilities, I looked at myself in the mirror and I realized something very important. I ended up fine. You will end up fine. I am not offering advice—I am offering reassurance. I could have written about every negative experience you will have throughout high school and how to avoid it. But, by spoiling it, that would take the fun out of what will be the most amazing four years of your life. I am leaving you to experience every struggle, every failed test, every fight with friends and every mental breakdown by yourself. It is through these struggles that you will slowly but suddenly become the person who is writing to you now. And with that, I introduce you to the saying which you will repeat to yourself so many times in the future, as you hold back tears. “This too shall pass.” After Mom first said this to you during your junior year breakdown over your math teacher, you began using it as a reminder that even the hardest moments in life don’t last forever. This saying helped you through fights with friends, boy drama and pretty much every low point from then on. 

As I began to near the end of my high school career, I came to the realization that I may have been naive to another meaning of the words which had comforted me time after time again. I now repeat this saying with a different type of tears in my eyes; the type that comes from realizing that while the hard times won’t last forever, neither will the good times. I used to walk the halls on especially hard days, whispering that saying, and finding comfort knowing it was true. Soon, I will walk those same halls for the last time but the only thing I will be thinking is that I wish it didn’t pass so soon. So next time you are having one of those bad days, remember that it will all be okay. And next time you are having an amazing day, or even just an okay one, hold on to it. It won’t be too long before you will wish you could do it all again.

Love,

Senior year self