SPEAK NOW!!!!

Last weekend, I bought the new Taylor Swift cd. Inside the album cover, lies something so poignant and so true. It really made me ponder that when the hashtag #tweetyour16yearoldself was being thrown around on twitter. Here is what TS said:
      "'Speak now or forever hold your peace, ' the words said by preachers at the end of wedding ceremonies all over the world, right before the vows. It's a last chance for protest, a moment that makes everyone's heart race, and a moment I've always been strangely fascinated by. So many fantasize about bursting into a church, saying what they'd kept inside for years like in the movies. In real life, it rarely happens. 
       Real life is a funny thing you know. In real life, saying the right thing at the right moment is beyond crucial. So crucial, in fact, that most of us start to hesitate, for fear of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. But lately what I've begun to fear more than that is letting the moment pass without saying anything. 
       I think most of us fear reaching the end of our life, and looking back regretting the moments we didn't speak up. When we didn't say 'I love you.' When we should've said 'I'm sorry.' When we didn't stand up for ourselves or someone who needed help....Words can break someone into a million pieces, but they can also put them back together. I hope you use yours for good, because the only words you'll regret more than the ones left unsaid are the ones you use to intentionally hurt someone. 
       What you say might be too much for some people. Maybe it will come out all wrong and you'll stutter and you'll walk away embarrassed, wincing as you play it all back in your head. But I think the words you stop yourself from saying are the ones that will haunt you the longest. 
       So say it to them. Or say it to yourself in the mirror. Say it in a letter you'll never send or in a book millions might read someday. I think you deserve to look back on your life without a chorus of resounding voices saying 'I could've, but it's too late now. 
       There is time for silence. There is a time waiting your turn. But if you know how you feel, and you so clearly know what you need to say, you'll know it. 
       I don't think you should wait. I think you should speak now." 

If there is anything I could tell my 16 year old self, it would be to not be so prideful. When you get that phone call at the age of 22, it's better to say too much, than never say what you need to say again. SPEAK NOW. It might change your life forever......