At any age, it can be hard to figure out who you are. Am I a good person? What am I good at? Why do I get into bad moods sometimes, and what fixes them? What drives me? What am I interested in? Who am I interested in? What do I want to do for a living? Where do I want to be for the rest of my life? What are my goals, and how will I achieve them?

If you have asked yourself any of the above questions or related questions, this article is for you. The simple answer is that you don’t have to know. Not yet. You will figure yourself out one day as long as you remain friends with yourself and the body you call home.

The more complicated answer is… well, complicated. We are supposed to be the people who know ourselves best, but most of us feel that it is easier to describe a friend than ourselves — and not due to modesty. Most of us have trouble realizing our quirks, constant behaviors, and common attitudes. For example, we may realize that our friend is stubborn, moody, and sometimes selfish, despite their usually flawless personality and kind attitudes towards you and everyone else. However, these sorts of traits may go hidden within ourselves for years before we realise them; it may even take somebody else pointing them out for us to see them at all. So why is this? Maybe we do know, but we are in denial of our flaws. Maybe we all carry the same traits, but some are more prominent than others. Maybe we are all more similar than we think, and we’re all just replicas of one another with different packaging and influences. Maybe we can’t know ourselves because then that spoils the game. Maybe the game is why we are here: to figure out who we are.

Maybe we are here for entertainment. Nobody wants to read a book that has the same storyline as The Notebook. You’d know what is going to happen, with no twists or turns. Maybe if we knew ourselves, there wouldn’t be any twists or turns. Life would be simple because we would know what we want, when we want it, and how to get it. In a “perfect world,” we would know who we are, and maybe that would spoil things. I enjoy finding out more about myself. It’s like a beautiful friendship with somebody, 24/7, with some arguments and some bumps in the road, but at the end of the day, when you’re lying in bed, no matter who you are next to, YOU are always going to be closer to yourself.

Within yourself, you’ll share secrets never to be spoken out loud. You are your own best friend, and if you know that person back to front, the fun stops. It gets dull. Some people say they don’t like surprises, but without them, a boring life is led. With time, we will get to know ourselves, and with that journey, we will also learn self-love, the two most important things in life. We must wait for the reward of self-discovery, and always be ready to embark on another life lesson anytime.

It is okay that you don’t know who you are. It is okay that you are confused, misled, and frustrated. Be patient; you will work it out, and you’ll look back wondering why you ever worried so much. Live in the moment. Be kind to yourself.

Let your cells get to know each other before you demand a pop quiz on its neighbour within the hour.