Hello Beautiful People,
Last night I finally got to meet with the Cafe Chat girls again, which was much needed. We had a wonderful girls night enjoying conversation and exchanging thoughts. This month Ally chose our topic, and with the new year upon us, she thought we should reflect a little. Her idea was to write a letter or give advice to our past selves, giving them advice on life and what not. I think this idea is a perfect way to ring in the new year and reflect on the lessons we’ve learned.
If I could talk to my 17 year old self I would tell her a couple of things. To start, I feel like I had a pretty good high school experience and I did well. But, if I had to give advice to myself here’s what I would say:
Live a little: During high school, I was always known as the good girl who never did anything crazy. I was always super focused on Cheerleading; cheer was life for me. Looking back on it, I do not regret the focus I put into cheer, but I do wish I would of stepped outside of that from time to time to enjoy high school kid activities. Therefore, I would tell my seventeen year old self to lighten up and get outside of your comfort zone.
Stay up late: Connecting to the one above, I would tell my younger self to stay out late on a school night. I was often such a home body and I never did much on school nights. I would tell seventeen year old self to go make some memories. Make a taco bell run late at night or go night swimming, something spontaneous! I have recently learned this lesson and it is actually really valuable. I usually go to bed fairly early, but when my friends offer up a fun opportunity, I try not to pass it up. You will remember the memories made far more than the sleep you missed out on.
Stop worrying about what other people think: This is my biggest weakness, I care far too much about what others have to say about me. I still allow other peoples thoughts to impact me to this day, but I am way better than my younger self. People are always going to have their two cents to throw in but you should just ignore it. I would tell myself at seventeen to not care. It’s easier said than done, but especially in high school you shouldn’t care because many of those people you will never see after school is over. Just be yourself and do what makes you happy, everything else will fall into place.
Although I would offer this advice to my younger self, I do not regret anything from high school because I made it this far. Without focusing on cheer I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to cheer in college. Everything is a lesson in life, and even though I didn’t live on the edge in high school, I still have had some amazing experiences since then. The main idea I want my readers to take away from this post is balance. School and sports are important and they can lead you into amazing things; but living for yourself and doing things that set your soul on fire is equally important. The goal, and hardest task, is finding the balance between the two.
This past semester I focused on finding that balance. I have always been one to over stress about things like school and work, but this semester I really focused on doing what made me happy. I still worked hard on important school work and studied for exams, but I allowed myself some grace when things didn’t go the way I planned. You can’t change some things, so you must move forward and adjust as needed.
From age 17 to now (20), I think I have learned and experienced so much. These years have been some of the most busy and crazy years of my life. This topic was really fun to do because I had never really thought of what I would tell my seventeen year old self. In the end, I would tell myself to relax and just enjoy life a little more. The future is going to come whether you’re ready for it or not.
Since this is a Cafe Chat style post make sure you check out the other girl’s blogs to read their post. We all work really hard to create an awesome collaborative post, and it only works if you check out all the posts. I will share their links below.
Paige | Where The Wildflowers Are
Tessa | Simply Tess
Ally | A Touch of Tulle
Thank you so much for reading this little chat! Make sure you check out the other girl’s post. I thought the last post would be my final one of 2016, but here we are. I wish everyone a Happy New Year & I can’t wait to see what 2017 has in store. The girls and I discussed continuing Cafe Chat in the new year, possibly calling it something else. So, keep a look out for new content from all of us. Thank you again for always reading PYM.