Note to my teenage self

1. Take your freedom more seriously.

You stay in your room and read too much. You don’t enjoy the ocean and the forest and your friends enough. Spend more time out and about. Call your friends more often. Get involved, seriously involved, with some kind of outdoor activity. You were in the kayak club at high school for a while. Stick with it. River kayaking is a lot of fun.

2. Don’t do things because other people say you should, do them because you want to.

You ended up going to art school because your parents and your teachers pressured you into it, but it kills your love or art for a really long time. Just start at community college first. Save the money and experiment until you find something you really love to do. You do not need to be in a rush to be successful.

3. Having a boyfriend and/or drama in your life is not the most important thing in the world.

When you meet Scott you sort of latch on to him and it tends to make other people not like being around you because you always have to have Scott with you where ever you go. Scott has an abrasive, bull-shitter personality that a lot of people don’t like and your friends will tell you on the rare occasion that you aren’t seen with him that you are a lot more fun to be around when he isn’t there.  They’ll tell you this several times. Take it to heart. Being connected with Scott is going to really hurt you later on because you’re going to start to feel like you’ve lost any personal identity you may have had. Don’t center your life around him.

Hell…don’t date him at all. He’s a really nice guy, but the relationship ultimately does nothing for you. Then he steals your money later on.

4. Appreciate Colin more.

He is very fond of you and he’s the best friend anyone could possibly have. Your friendship starts off really rocky because he’s super in love with you and you don’t return the feelings, but it works out okay in the end after a lot of awkwardness.

But he’s a wonderful person, a great friend, one of the the few people in your life that it would really kill you to lose. Make sure you remember this because there’s going to come a time when you’ll live in San Diego and he’ll live in Chico and you won’t get to see him for about three years and it’s going to make you really, really sad. Also, you have a tendency to give him a hard time about a lot of unnecessary things. You need to stop that right now.

5. Try and have a better relationship with Dad.

Right now, you and Dad are practically strangers. Right now, you don’t know how to relate to him. The last time you talked to him was on Father’s day, but most of the time you just text each other, and not very often. You should make a point to spend more time with him and try to help out more with the things that are important to him. Spend more time on the ranch, try to have real conversations with him. Realize that Dad works a lot because it’s the only time when he’s any semblance of happy. Learn how to use a chainsaw and ask him to teach you how to drive the cat, or the grader, or the loader. You’ll never stop believing that he has no sense of humor and that he takes things way too seriously, but try to understand that it’s just a part of his personality. You can’t change it. Learn to accept it. He’s your dad.

6. Save money so you can start traveling BEFORE you’re 26.

Traveling is going to be something you really, really, really want to do when you get a little older, but you’re not going to be able to right away due to your financial situation. SAVE MONEY TO TRAVEL!  There’s a point there where you’re working for a fast food place and your paychecks for several months are just sitting on your dresser because you don’t need the money for anything. DON’T WASTE IT! PUT IT IN A SAVINGS ACCOUNT!

Not doing this is going to be one of your biggest regrets.

7. Work on fixing all of these things when you’re older.

This explains it self. It’s never too late!