Dear 7th grader Elizabeth Mei,

Right now you are a huge weirdo. You'll become a bigger brat to your parents but luckily they'll forgive you. You'll get your license and gain a little more freedom. You'll go on your first date, take multiple AP exams, get your first kiss,  fight with your friends, get a boyfriend, fail your first test, and basically survive high school. Oh but don't worry, you'll actually score a date to prom. Luckily, life will then get even better (you won't even miss high school, trust me).

You'll graduate, not say good-bye to the people you don't care about, leave the tiny town of Enumclaw, and go to the nice school that accepted you. Your OCDness about your grades paid off friend, don't worry. In fact, you worry too much. Middle school doesn't even mean anything. But anyways, I digress.

Basically, my life is way better than yours. I actually have friends and I talk to people at school. I don't live under my parents' rules (although they never had many). I get to choose what I want to do. The people I meet now don't even believe that I used to be shy, like silent, in school. Crazy, huh? But there is one thing that I am jealous of. You don't care what other people think. You speak your mind, your serious about world issues, you care about saving the earth, your opinionated, and you have a strong spine. Yes, your fashion sense is horrible. And believe me, those army cargo pants and that black shirt with the skull and crossbones will not always be your favorites. Nor will knee socks, those nascar jazz pants, or that striped black and red scarf. But, you just don't care. And that inspires me. Because right now, I'm trying to reach that. I'm hoping I'll look a little better than you do when I try something different but I'm going to need your confidence. I know you suffer from pre-teen insecurities just like all girls do but your defiance in going against the fashion grain is valuable, especially to me now.

I now have have two mottos: What Would Sydney Do (from The Daybook) and would 7th grade Elizabeth be afraid to wear that?

{bring it on}

P.S. Goodwill will become your new best friend. Embrace it.