Dear 17 Year Old Olivia,

First, let me start right off by saying that everything turns out just fine. And that boy you’re crying over right now ain’t shit. In fact, honestly none of them are. Don’t waste your time with high school boys. Actually, I take that back. They all kind of suck, but I promise all of the “heartbreaks” (using the term loosely here because I know you think the world is ending right now but I promise you it’s not) are worth it. They’re how you learn what you want, and they’re how you learn what you’re WORTH.

All of those boys that are only available when it’s convenient for them, that don’t text you back for hours at a time, that don’t make you a priority or show you that you matter, will make you truly appreciate the one that does. Trust me, the right guy will come along (sooner than you think) and will treat you like you deserve to be treated. He’ll choose you every day, and show you that you’re way more important to him than Fifa. Or Call of Duty. Honestly, the right guy doesn’t even play Call of Duty, let’s be real. And you won’t have to pretend to like Jersey Shore for him, either. He is from New Jersey though, funny enough. That’s right, definitely not the musician with the southern accent you were hoping to meet when you moved to Nashville, but I promise, it’s better this way.

I know you just committed to your “dream school” and all you want is to leave Washington and High School behind and start over 2,000 miles away, but girl, slow down! I promise you, High School definitely is not “the best four years of your life” like you keep hearing, but it’s not bad, either. Your high school friendships are the truest friendships you’ll ever have. In fact, some of your high school friends will even be your bridesmaids— spoiler alert: you’re married now! And they’ll fly across the country to come to your wedding, or even just to visit you in Nashville, which you’ll call home for 7 amazing years, or New York City, where you live now (I know, crazy, right?).

While in college, you’ll have a couple of pretty cool jobs, and one AWFUL one. Honestly, just avoid Carrabba’s at all costs. I know walking in with a resume and walking out with a job might seem too good to be true, but that’s because it is. Any job that hires you on the spot is a red flag. I urge you to just skip that one. It sucks. You’ll hate it, and the manager is a creep. Actually, maybe just take that time to focus a littleeeee more on school because tbh you barely graduated. You did it. But honestly you made it way harder for yourself than it needed to be.

That being said, you’ll love working at Francesca’s. While you’re there, you’ll even start a fashion blog— one that becomes a huge part of your life, and leads you to so many amazing opportunities and people. In fact, six years later and your blog is still going strong! And you’ll REALLY love working at Arrington Vineyards. You’ll meet some people that you’re still friends with today, and meet other friends through those friends. You’ll develop a love of wine. You honestly may love wine a little too much if we’re being real. And better yet, you’ll do a wine tasting for a couple that has just adopted a border collie puppy, they’ll give you the information for the farmer they adopted him from, and you’ll end up with a border collie puppy of your own. That’s right, you have a dog. He’s almost 4 now, and he’s the cutest, sweetest dog in the world. His name is Euler. AND LOOK HOW FREAKING CUTE HE IS!

All in all, aside from the whole pandemic situation where you’ve been quarantined in your apartment for 25ish days now and there’s no real end in sight (honestly too much to get into at the moment but just, tell everyone you know not to eat bats? Maybe that’ll help spread the word?) things are going pretty good for you right now. I think about you a lot. I think about what you’d think of where we’re at now. I think you’d be pretty happy knowing this is where we’ll be in 8 years. There are absolutely things that we could have done better, and times where we could have and should have worked harder, but overall, everything turns out just fine— better than fine. So just breathe. And know that no matter what, even on days where it feels like the world is ending (it doesn’t actually end in 2012 like they say it’s supposed to, btw), it’s all going to be okay.

And someday, 8 years from now you’ll be sitting on the balcony of your New York City apartment (which you LOVE) with your adorable dog Euler, wearing your Juicy Couture sweatpants (which you somehow still have?) for the first time in years while your husband (eek, still not used to that! He’s hot, too!) is working and playing music inside and you’ll think about 17 year old Olivia, the girl who saved up her babysitting money to buy the sweatpants you’re currently wearing. And you’ll think about how happy she’d be with where she’s at now. And you’ll be inspired to write her a letter, to tell her that everything is going to be fine. Things may not always go the way we planned, but I promise, we ended up just where we needed to be. I love you, and I’ll see you in 8 years!

XOXO,

25 Year Old Olivia

PS. This is you now! You don’t look that different, honestly. But you did finally learn how to do makeup. Even though you can’t tell in this picture. ALSO, just to give you something to look forward to, here’s a little sneak peek at your wedding! (and yes, I did purposely choose a picture where his face was covered! You didn’t think I was gonna give EVERYTHING away, did you?)

An Open Letter to 17 Year Old Me

Dear 17 Year Old Olivia,