Things I'd Tell My 15-Year Old Self

Dear 15 year old me, I wish I could have said these things to you before you got hurt, experienced happiness, made mistakes or have done things that you should have not. But alas, the world does not work that way, so I'll just leave this here in hopes of someone can learn from my mistakes. 

1.  All people are bad, including yourself. All of us have our dark side no matter how innocent and kind we seem. These parts of us can hurt you and you can never prevent this. However, keep in mind that all people are good, too. Despite the bad things you label a person, you'll always be surprised whenever they show their goodness. And never ever ever focus on somebody's bad side whenever you see them. 
2. Do not live up to anybody's expectations or judgments. They do not control you, nor do you control them. Each of our perspectives are different. So next time somebody says you look ridiculous in that outfit, don't feel ashamed of yourself because someone out there that you might have passed by and saw you might have thought you slayed.
3. It has always been health over grades. Do not lose sleep over a number that would not matter to you fast forward 20 years because trust me, those line of 90+ numbers listed on a paper wouldn't give you as much happiness than the time you could be spending with your friends or family. 
4. It's never wrong to show affection for the people you love. Okay, I'm not mentioning too much PDA but it's nice to hold your best friend or significant other's hand once in a while. No, it's not lust nor a sin. It's just a way of showing them that they matter to you and you appreciate their existence in a physical way. Do not shy away from physical contact as been taught upon you since you were little because you'll experience in the future how regret and guilt would eat you from the inside. 
5. Do not repress your emotions. It's not called oversharing when you say what you want to say - its called expressing. Going back to number 2, ignore people if they judge what you feel. It's your feelings, not theirs so they don't have the right to validate it or not because they haven't experienced what you've been through.
6. You are not alone. Mainstream, I know. But it's true. You might feel like everybody's turned their back on you when you're crying in the middle of the night but haven't you thought that they haven't got a clue about what you're going through because you haven't shared anything about yourself to them for the past months? They are thinking when and how to approach you because they might think that because you isolated yourself from them, they thought that they might have done something to upset you. Always, always approach someone, no matter how worse it gets. The real world is not like the movies where somebody immediately saves you out of nowhere. If you need someone, they're just a message or call away.