I'm proud of you.

Dear Younger Me,

Brace yourself.

One day, you're going to change your mind about something you once defended with your whole chest. When that day comes, you're going to think the sky will fall. Trust me, it won't.

Right now, you believe changing your mind is a sign of weakness. You think once you say something out loud, you must defend it forever. You think that if you switch lanes, people will whisper.

Well...I say let them. You are not a contract. You are allowed to change your mind, and you will have many chances to practice that.

You will choose a career and later realise it no longer fits the woman you are becoming. You will hold opinions tightly and then life will laugh softly and prove you wrong. You will commit to certain dreams, and later dream bigger ones. You will pour into friendships and later accept that not everyone is meant to stay.

Each time this shift happens, it will shake you. But growth is uncomfortable and it stretches you beyond who you used to be. You will outgrow people, places, and versions of yourself - that's just part of life. You are not a sellout, nor a hypocrite. You are growing.

Adulthood is not about planting your flag and guarding it for life. It's about having the courage to move it when wisdom demands it. And I wish I could tattoo this next nugget on your forehead so you never forget: your life is not a public performance, you do not owe the world a permanent position statement. You owe yourself alignment.

So change your mind. Change it when your peace depends on it. Do not hold yourself hostage to a contract you never signed.

You are allowed to evolve.

With love,

Your older, softer, still-learning self

millennials:

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for folks in office jobs:

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Jensen and JJ | stories/danneelackles512/[x]

This doesn’t just mean alcohol

Don’t accept any open drinks

After you get your unopened drink, you keep it in your site

You have to go to the bathroom so you leave your drink on a table? That drink is now dead to you.

You’ve been holding your drink way low out of your eyesight and people are crowding? That drink is now suspect.

Just because you’re in a bar or club with only other women does not mean you are inherently safe.

My best friend got drugged by a girl in an all female bar and was almost raped in the bathroom.

my old therapist derek, from across the reception area, seeing me for the first time after the summer of 2015: HEY DID YOU SEE AGE OF ULTRON?? IT SUCKED, RIGHT???

“You’re bassicly a glorified sad lizard.” (It makes sense with context)

“Damn girl you need to get your shit together.”

“Go home and cry. Stop drinking in bathtubs. Eat something that isn’t bleach or memes.”

*staring down the rabbit after the little rabbit hops into my lap, directly past my therapist, and letting me pet her instead* “Well, I see where your loyalties are and I will no longer be bringing you a fresh tomato every morning.”

“Freud will not stop screaming and running in circles because he got into the catnip about an hour ago so we will have to move our session upstairs if you want peace and quiet.” [Pausing] “…Freud the cat, I promise we did not resurrect Sigmund Freud just to overdose him on catnip”.

“The reason you’re so tired is because of that endless screaming into the void you keep referring to”.

“I’m going to level with you. In order to maintain your sanity, you must drop him like a sack of potatoes, and then boil the sack”.

“If she [child alter, who’d been having a fit that was keeping me from sleeping for three days straight because I wouldn’t let her cover the walls in pink glitter] won’t stop screaming, put her in front of the TV, turn on Sesame Street, take a nap and then deal with the situation”.