21 things I want to tell myself at 21
1. Stay kind, stay kind, stay kind. Always be kinder than you feel. Don’t let the world harden your heart, it’s come close a few times. Keep fighting to stay soft and full of love.
2. Take as many pictures as you can, take photos of your room, your sister, the posters on your wall, you looking in the mirror, the people you fall in love with, your favorite outfit, your favorite perfume, your friends, everything. Every year you age, the harder it will be to remember how your everyday life looks right now, and when you’re 65 years old with your grandchildren at your feet you’ll thank me.
3. Let yourself be unapologetically messy. Your outfits don’t always have to match, your hair doesn’t always need to be brushed. Walk around when the sun is out with sticky hands and stained lips.
4. You’ve achieved so much in terms of self care and self respect but there are still some things you have to work on. Like dancing. Yes, you can get drunk and dance and you can dance alone in your room but why do you feel so restrained in front of people?
5. When you’re in situations you have no control over, do not stress. There’s literally no point. Instead focus on things you can control which will indirectly have a positive impact on those tough situations you can’t directly deal with.
6. Keep choosing to pursue the things that intimidate you. Pick the scary things, the difficult things, the things you’re unsure of. Remember when you were 16 and the whole world seemed terrifying, you never thought you’d be here, you couldn’t have even imagined you’d be a part of the things you’re doing now. You choose to do the difficult things, the scary things, and look where it brought you, don’t stop.
7. You can be sweet and empathetic, open and accepting, understanding and forgiving, and still take shit from no one.
8. Talk more, smile more, look up when you’re walking instead of down at your phone. I know people get really exhausting, really fast, but the world deserves to see your eyes looking up at it, and you deserve to see the world looking back at you.
9. I know you just can’t understand why not everyone has good hearts and good intentions for others. honestly. It just baffles you, but that’s what sets you apart from the world. Your good heart, your good intentions, they may bruise more easily, but the real strength comes from the capacity to feel everything so deeply.
10. Try to watch something besides The Office on Netflix for a change.
11. Save your money, work really really hard to save it, because with the daydream of a cozy little place of your own comes the scary reality of bills and financial obligations. Save for that.
12. Don’t forget that you are privileged, and that you are also disadvantaged. Always be aware of both.
13. You’ve experienced great amount of change and loss this year. Let it all heal, but don’t forget how raw and real this feels. Use that to make you more conscious, more aware, more grateful. Keep taking in all the extra little details, the smells, the songs, the colors in the sky, because one day you’ll be dying to remember it all over again.
14. Try to wear more color, I know wearing black all the time feels safe but you look really good in pink.
15. Sometimes excuses are genuine reasons. Remember that when you’re both giving and receiving excuses.
16. Pursue as much education as you possibly can. You can never, never be too educated.
17. Start doing the things you want to do, when you want to do them. Don’t save your desires for a special occasion. If you want to take a drive into the mountains, go. If you have an amazing new outfit, don’t “save it” for a special occasion. If you want to visit a new coffee shop don’t wait until your friends can go with you, go, sit, sip and watch.
18. Your heart aches for a reason, whether you know what that reason is or not. Let it ache, and try your hardest to fulfill it.
19. See rejection as redirection
20. You are a living, breathing magnet. You attract what you are ready for. If it’s on your mind, in your heart, it will become your reality.
21. 20s isn’t the only decade you’re alive. Don’t stress yourself to achieve everything in the next 10 years. Sometimes it feels like your just not doing enough, you’re just not where you need to be, you just are who you’re supposed to be yet. You are, don’t get so caught up trying to create your life that you forget to actually live it. Calm down, and take a minute to realized you’ve got the whole world to go and many more decades to get there.