5 things I wish I could tell my 18 year old self

Lately online I always see these popup sites on my Facebook feed and they all have titles along the lines of... "10 things I want to tell my son before high school"... "8 things I wish I could tell my daughter".... "13 things I learned from parenthood"... I have become a sucker for these lists, indulging and devouring one every time I find a new site. With reading all of these I tried to come up with what my own wisdom to disperse would be, what I would tell someone if I could. After thinking about it for quite some time I finally concluded the person who could use the most advice from me is.... me. If I could sit down and talk to '18 year-old fresh out of high school, ready for college Ashlynn' I would have a whole lot of wisdom and advice to give to her... and that Ashlynn would most likely roll her eye's at this one's advice but I decided I wanted to share it. Here is my list of Five Things I Wish I Could Tell My 18 Year Old Self.

1.. You are not invincible... drink a lot of water, lay off of the soda and candy, exercise, stay out of the sun (or at least lather on the sunscreen). All nighter's are fun but they will catch up to you eventually. Naps are so great! Take advantage of them while you can. Your mom is right on what she tells you...Ya know how I know this..? Because she learned from experience just like you are going to.

2...Your intuition is almost always right...If your gut is telling you someone is bad news... Listen for hells sake! If you don't end up listening really evaluate if they are someone worth giving a second chance to. Second chances can be an okay thing... but stop there... third and fourth chances are not okay.

3.. Finish school... as quickly as you can. Don't take classes just to mess around. Don't transfer colleges just for a new experience. Don't switch you major countless times. Just go to school and get it done. Homework is hard, studying is a pain,  but it is so much harder when you have a baby climbing all over you. One day you are going to really regret the stupid classes you took like 'trampoline' and 'theology'. 

4..You are going to have a lot of new and different friends... new roommates, people you meet at parties, people you meet in class, people you work with, people you meet all the random places you will go.. you will lose some amazing people and you will gain some amazing people. Be thankful for them all. I like to believe that I am basically an accumulation of every person I have ever met. Every single person you meet is either a lesson or a blessing. After all of the friends that come and go in your life you are going to realize that your best friends and the people you can rely on the most are family... and you can quote me on that.

5.. Don't sweat the small stuff. People are going to make you angry, situations are going to make you angry, you are going to do things that will eventually make you angry... And you will be upset and you will want to yell at someone, you will want to make someone upset like you are, you will want to make your feelings known... DONT. Wait... wait at least 24 hours before you act on your anger. Try to think to yourself the consequences of your anger, try to think if this is something that will make you angry five years from now when you think about it. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you choose to react to it. Mostly, just try to brush off what you can.... I know, I know, easier said than done. You will win some and you will lose some. Most importantly not every situation needs a reaction.

I once heard the saying, "The mistakes made by a girl are the makings of a woman"... There is literally so much more I wish I could tell my younger self; this is just the tip of the ice-berg. I wish I could tell her people to watch out for, to bring her camera around more at certain times, to floss more, and that literally nothing in the entire world would make her as happy and as whole feeling as the little brown eyed girl that she will bring into this world. When you ask God for help don't forget to thank him when he does. And really... put the stupid sunscreen on.

XO:
Ashlynn&Boston
BRONSON


I wish I had a different picture to share on this post BUT I thought my license I got on my 18 year old birthday is pretty fitting for it.