What would I say if I ran into my 19-year-old self back in 1996?

“You are totally rockin the Rachel haircut, but you may want to rethink the overalls and Birkenstocks”????

Probably, but I would like to think I have learned a few other things in the last 20 years that I could pass along…

• Embrace your college years. It really is the time of your life.
• I know you desperately want to move into an apartment and be grown up. You have the rest of your life to worry about paying bills. Enjoy the cafeteria and showers you don’t have to wash while you can.
• Pay attention to the one class in college that teaches you about the internet aka “the world wide web.” It will kinda be a big deal.
• Don’t be afraid to stray from the pack. Sometimes the pack takes the wrong path.
• In a few years you will get your first cell phone. Several years after that, your iPhone will take the place of your watch, planner, calculator, camera, and Discman. Don’t let it take the place of real life. You never had all those things in your back pocket 24/7, so don’t feel like you have to now.
• Pound the pizza now. Your metabolism sets sail at 38 with no return in sight.
• You will never need to be ashamed of your NSync obsession. Get a poster of the curly headed one for over your bed, he too will kinda be a big deal.
• Save your $$ and don’t buy those Rollerblades. Your mama will make you buy a ton of safety gear that will make you look like a dork. And you suck at skating.
• Don’t just go for the nerd, be the nerd. Nerds rule the real world.
• Go ahead and move to NYC after you graduate. If you don’t do it when you are young, you never will. Just know that you won’t have a big periwinkle colored apartment and drink coffee all day at Central Perk. And you can always move back home.
• Listen to what your parents say. They actually have been there, done that and want to help you. And one day you will have kids and payback is a b!tch.
• Embrace how God made you and quit trying to change it. (IE… no amount of squats will remove the junk from your trunk and put the flat iron in the drawer for good.)
• Hold tight to your girlfriends. The same ones that stay up late watching “Fear” with you now, will be the ones that hold your hand and wipe your tears later. It will take a conscious effort to stay close as you age, but it is worth it.
• You can’t change him. Love him the way he is or move on because one day you will have children with him and they will inherit all of his…quirks 😉
• Enjoy whatever stage in life you are in…even if they last a little longer than you anticipated.
• Learn to praise God in the hallway while you wait for the door to open. Look behind you. The door you expect to open isn’t always the one that does! Trust in God’s plan for your life.
• Many things will go your way, but some won’t. It’s when they don’t that you will have the opportunity to become a better person.
• Learn from your mistakes you made and forgive yourself immediately. God already has. You are no better than Him, right?
• Be diligent about taking your quiet time with yourself and the Lord. These quiet moments are where you will find your true strength.
• Never be afraid to reinvent yourself…even at 39.