"@scottiewaves: If you met the younger you, what advice would you give. . ."

• Drink water. Drink lots of water.
• Don't cut your hair. You think you won't miss it, but every time you do, you spend months growing it out and getting frustrated. It's just easier, trust me.
• Have more fun. It won't kill you, your parents won't mind and you'll regret it when you're graduating high school. 
• Skip the rebellion phase. Really. You don't like parties, you don't like staying out late with people you don't like and you really don't want to spend all that time drinking.
• Read more obscure books. It will take you three years to read seven and a half chapters of Sophie's World, and you might appreciate starting a little earlier.
• Write more. Write way more. You'll hate it all, but you'll be better for it.
• Spend more Thursday afternoons in the couch with your grandpa. There will be Thursdays when the couch is empty and you will miss him so much more than you can ever imagine. 
• Visit your grandparents as often as you can. 
• Pick your friends wisely. If they make you feel like shit then that's the easiest way to know they need to go. You won't need them - you'll realise that fewer, more valuable friendships will be more satisfying. You'll be nineteen with barely enough friends to count on both hands and you will be happy. Believe it or not.
• Don't be bitter. Your parents do what they think is best for you, and they will be two of the few people who will love you unconditionally (even when you cut your hair, pierce your ear, ignore their calls for three weeks, sneak the car out at eleven p.m. and come home at three a.m, spend all your money on things you can't eat and fail three courses). 
• Don't worry about whether or not you're straight. You'll be 19 and there will be fifty different ways to say what you like, and it won't even matter. You'll be okay (even if maybe you like girls).
• You will love, and love again. The love will be better the second time around, believe it or not.
• Communicate better. 
• There will be many days when you will be lonely, anxious, depressed or angry. It's okay to spend these days coping however best you can. It's okay to spend the entire day in bed. Don't worry.
• Don't be afraid to show affection. 
• Don't bottle shit up. Those bottles will fill up, and flow over and make a huge mess everywhere. (You will be 19, and still not know how to not do this.)
• It's okay to let go sometimes. If it's meant for you, it'll come back somehow. Life is funny like that.
• Cry when it hurts. And laugh when it doesn't. Submit fully to the things you feel and don't be afraid. You are a warrior and a woman, and these things make you a stronger both. 
• Do nice things for other people. It just feels good. 
• It's the little things. Not the big ones. You'll understand. 
• Nothing you plan for the future will happen. And that will be okay. Trust God. The future will be fine, anyways. Better than you imagine, sometimes.
• You will love him, and he will hurt you, and you will hurt him.... but you will love him all the same. It is possible. You'll see. Sometimes love is holding hands all the way through hell until you reach heaven (and knowing that both are temporary). 
• Things end. That's okay.

Being 19 is scary, amazing and sometimes really confusing. Just like being any other age. Remember you are constantly growing and changing and shifting and the spaces you once drowned in will be too small. This is all okay. Everything is okay. Trust God, whatever you conceive him to be.