Dear younger me, 

 I hope you know how proud I am of you. How every day I strive to make you proud and live life in a way that makes you happy. I still run through sprinklers and swing on the monkey bars and jump through every single chalk hopscotch pattern on the sidewalk. I hope you know to hold onto every single aspect of your childhood with both your hands and tug on that happiness and innocence tightly because you´ll be chasing after that feeling for the rest of your life. Savor how your cherry popsicle makes your hands sticky and how close you and your classmates are. Don´t worry about the sugar, eat the cookies and treats at the class holiday party. It is not embarrassing to enjoy rainbows and unicorns. Wear your sparkly flip-flops and twirl in your frilly dresses every day. You will make more friends, and when you become a big kid in high school, know that everything will be okay. You will never eat lunch alone and your honors classes are hard but not impossible. I know you're scared about never mastering your times tables, but trust me, you do. Mom and dad are still your best friends and you don´t have to play with that toy dog anymore, we got a real one. You still have the opportunity to wear sparkly and frilly dresses at homecoming and the winter formal. Remember all the big girl things you saw people do? Yeah it´s our turn to do that now. I go to get my nails done without mom, I bike around town with my friends, and I even have a pink sparkly phone because I knew it would make you happy.  I learned to straighten my hair and put on real makeup. But even without all of that, I hope you know that you are so pretty. You are so smart. You have people who love and support you. It gets better, all your dandelion wishes come true. Keep wishing and dreaming and hoping. Don´t fit into the mold of what you hope to be and accept that you right now is more than perfect. Sing every song loudly, run as fast as you can during recess, and look in the mirror and smile at what you see. Be proud of yourself because I know I am. 

With love, 

Your Future Self