Gonna be feelin' 22

Happy birthday, Teyen!

Wow, 22. Congratulations on getting through your first day as a 22 year old. Well, almost. You've got 30 minutes left!

As you begin this new chapter in life, I wish you all the luck. There will be more joys, blessings, new friendships and new places to go to, but there will also be more responsibilities, opportunities, fears, challenges and heartbreaks. The world will challenge and break you down even more but you will also discover what it means to love, to listen, and to hold unto who you are while everything and everyone else is trying to change you. There will be battles where you have to fight but you will never fight them alone. There will be paths where you have to walk on by yourself, but that is how you will grow. There will be people that will love you and there will be people that will not.

But you will be fine because you will never be alone.

I wish I wrote this yesterday, on your last day as a 21 year old. That was when everything was finally sinking into your little stubborn mind that you are officially growing up. Because starting from now, you will soon step into a world where there is no system that organizes what grade you are stepping into next, what your daily schedule should be like, and what books you should read and what papers you should write.

But you will be fine.

Leave behind your fears. Stand tall and strong in and for your passions and don't let the voices of this world bring you down. Love and live selflessly. Encourage with patience. And listen with all your heart.

Happy birthday, Teyen.

Now go celebrate it by finishing the paper you're working on right now. (;