Dear Me...

Dear attention seeking, overly obnoxious, teenage me,

(^that's me in the back, doing the typical peace sign face with my lovely braces. That is the best picture I could find of me back in the day)

I am writing you as a 20 year old, junior in college. I know it has only been a few years since I have been where you are, but there are still some valuable things that I would like to tell you.

Your life is not in "shambles" (as my lovely roommate Emily would say) just because you moved to TN. I know you don't like the color orange, you hate the University of Tennessee, you refuse to say "Go Vols" and you are determined to get out of this state as fast as possible, but all of that will change. MAJORLY. So just go ahead and embrace the fact that you moved to TN. Don't be bitter. Don't get mad at God like you will. It's not worth it and it actually hurts you in the long run. Here's a preview of your life to come...you end up liking orange, A LOT. (These guys end up being some of your closest friends too, but you can find out more about them in a few years.)

E N J O Y where you are. Stop wishing time away. In 8th grade, you will make a comment to Mom and say, "I wish I could just skip high school and go straight to college." Don't say it. Don't even think it. Once you finally reach high school, it will fly by. You will be a nervous freshman, and then you will blink and you will be walking, with confidence, across the stage receiving your diploma. So in every circumstance, every struggle, every heartache, every joyful moment, every laugh, enjoy it, please. You will never get those moments back.

You are not the center of the world, as you currently think you are. You don't matter and I wish you could understand this. Right now, you are surrounded by people that don't know Jesus. They don't know what love looks like. AND YOU COULD SHOW IT TO THEM! You could tell them! But you come up with every excuse not to. You are only thinking about yourself. And I am a little mad at you for that reason. It is so easy to ask someone to church or tell them about Jesus or encourage them, but you choose to be afraid of ruining your reputation. You don't do anything about it! Hey Rach, STOP talking, and START walking. Do something. Stop just being a "good girl" and start changing your school.

Lastly, cheer your little heart out. You love to cheer. You work really hard at it and your dream is to cheer in college. Pursue that dream. It may or may not happen, I won't spoil that for you, but give it 100%. And again, enjoy every second of it because one day you will miss it so much that your heart hurts. So run that extra mile even when you want to throw up, stick EVERY landing, and don't be afraid to try something new.

Also, when your hair is really long and it is getting hard to handle, don't cut it.

Start building a friendship with your brother, he needs you and you need him. 

Stop worrying about boys! None of the ones that you like right now are going to be your future spouse (that I know of anyway) so stop. You have plenty of time before you should even be thinking about marriage. 

Stop gossipping. Learn to love. 

Let Jesus fill you up. I know you say that He is on your throne, but He isn't, you are. Don't let the things of this world become idols, it will take a lot of brokenness and hurt to fix that. 

Be thankful. 

Learn grace. 

Run with endurance. 

With much love, 

Grace loving, Jesus seeking, slightly still obnoxious, 20 year old me.