You don't know what you have.

Honestly. So many of you are so lucky. Some of you have problems, but for the most part you also have one of the greatest opportunities in life- a second chance. You are still young and well enough catered to that you can turn most situations around. You have yet to accumulate the kind of dead weight that holds you back from your potential.

I've had my share of second chances too. I've had more than I can count, and now I've lost what many of you take for granted. Don't bitch about your looks- I'm betting anything that, no matter what your complaint is, you still look young: anything else you can change. I am nineteen, and I regularly pass for twenty-nine. I've aged ten years, and it's not the kind of aging that is easy to undo. My skin has lost its elasticity; I look dry and crumpled and there are rings under my eyes that have nothing to do with a lack of sleep or nutrition- no, they have been permanent for roughly two years now. My hands, arms and legs are so rough and covered in scars (not self-inflicted) that they could be the hands of a forty-year-old. I've gone from liking to wear nail polish to needing it to cover up the yellow ridges in my nails.

I look horrible and I feel horrible. And the worst thing is, I have sabotaged a lot of opportunities because of it. My boyfriend insists he cares about me, but I know he wouldn't have felt the same way if he had met me in this state a year ago. He could do a lot better; most men could. The rest of my life isn't exactly in great condition, either. I'm broke, no landlord is willing to lease me a house for more than the minimum term and my partial completion of a uni course upon dropping out means that it will be nigh impossible for me to ever get back into uni again, despite the fact that I was in the top 0.1% of students in the year I graduated.

I can still pick myself up from here, but a lot of the damage is already done. I can still be healthy, but I will never look quite right for my age, and I can still get my act together at CIT and get a diploma, but I will never be the academic I could have been. I have severed a lot of irreplaceable social ties as well.

So just know how lucky you are. When you are young you have so many things you take for granted, and you never think that you could lose them, especially not before your time. Take care of those opportunities while they last.