Forever 21

I always knew this time would come. Still, it crept up on me quicker than I anticipated. 21 the age I always wanted to be, and now the age I do not want to give up.

As I enter my 22nd year of life, I find myself overwhelmed by a flood of bittersweet emotions; happy for the future, but sad to leave the past behind. University has been the most amazing experience of my life, the good times were great and even the bad times were good… at least in retrospect. In the last 4 years I learned so much about life, love, and happiness, but I learned the most about myself.

I learned that if there is one person in this world we should be totally honest with it’s ourselves. In order to be happy we must embrace our own truth, accept it for what it is because it’s the one thing that will never fail us.

Friendship:

It’s the most sacred of all bonds. It’s a connection - a mutual agreement - between you and another human being that says, “Hey I really like you…let’s be there for each other.” Sadly, friends aren’t always forever. If you’re lucky you will find one who will stick by you through this crazy journey we call life. Someone who understands who you REALLY are… someone, with only your best interests at heart.

Relationships:

The most complicated, frustrating, painful, wonderful, necessary things in life. There is no emotion that compares to the power and intensity of LOVE. Love if beautiful. It is different for every person and therefore it cannot be defined. All you need is love.

“For those who understand, no explanation is necessary. For those who don’t, no explanation is ever enough.”

Growing through adolescence I experienced love in many forms, reaching the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows. Is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved before? YES. With luck you will find the one person with whom you want to share your life with, to grow old with, your soulmate. Someone who completes you as a person… a best friend who loves you, unconditionally and irrevocably .

Family:

They are an extension of ourselves. Family is forever.

The “teenage rebellion” is an ongoing feud with adult society. A self-fulfilling prophecy, from which we are not given the chance to escape. Most of us don’t want to rebel, we simply desire to experience new things in life. OUR lives. Give us guidance not dictatorship. Once parents stop expecting us to be a certain way and start accepting the way we are, they will have found the key to our world.

Talk to your parents. Tell them your secrets, your fears, your dreams.
Most importantly, tell them you love them. Everyday.

Siblings:

Siblings can be your best friend or the biggest pain in the ass, and yet they are forever important and dear to us. An older one to follow or a younger one to guide… from them we learn what it means to lead, to stand out, to grow, to share. We learn what it means to be unique.

One thing I can always carry with is the fact that I do not regret anything. Shit happens, that’s life. Every experience we experience, every person we meet, every fight we have, every heart we break, every move we make, that’s life. I control my own destiny; you control you’re own destiny.

Growing up is moving forward on a line that will inevitably come to an end. We are given so little time to be happy, sad, excited, to hate, to love, to breathe, to live. You have this one life to live, so don’t waste it.
This is my life and I refuse to.
Forever 21… at heart.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!