What I would tell 18-year-old Emma
Adapted from Instagram.
This Friday, I graduated with three research assistantships, a certificate in new media technology, and a Bachelors of the Art in Public Relations from the #2 program in the country! When I was 18, I packed my bags and moved to Australia to enroll in a faith-based missionary training program. The work was rewarding and I thought the last thing I’d want to do is move home and go to college. So four years later, turning my tassel at the University of Georgia was a surreal moment, to say the least.
A friend asked me what I would tell myself if I could go back 4 years.
The short list...
Less self, more others.
You don’t need to leave the country to do something significant.
It’s ok you won’t have a sorority, you’ll have a family at a coffee shop instead.
Present day Emma would warn high school Emma to soon savor the porch hangs, ramen nights, lice treatments and worship in the living room.
Outdo one another in love.
Straight-forwardness is attractive, closure is honoring, + clarity will be your friend.
Friends you made in eleventh grade will become your people; choose them hard now.
You may feel in the dark at times. It won’t stay that way.
Good love is worth getting healthy for. Start the work now, and you might be able to keep the guy you meet at 19.
You are allowed to be the smart girl in the room. You have no idea what your intellect is capable of, even if no one’s told you that yet.
Keep pleading the case of the prostituted.
This is all a privilege.
Don’t shrink or lose yourself to make others comfortable – it’s healing every time you fiercely show up.
There will be someone who doesn’t just love you from the shore, but meets you in your depths.
Twenty-three and single might surprise you, but what a gift it is to learn to choose yourself.
Never be embarrassed that you’re still learning.
Doors will open where you don’t even see windows.
There’s probably a reason you love to write.
And a reason you love airplanes.
As for God failing you, don’t even think of it. Lift your chin and get ready to lean in – you have no idea who you’re about to become.
(ps... don’t lose sleep when they make fun of your hair. Bangs are about to be a kickass decision)
