Dear Past Amanda

Dear Past Me,
     Don't. Slack. Off. You've found something that you love to do, and you actually have the tools at hand to help you achieve your goals, so don't waste them.  Start applying to colleges, and not just in Florida. There are a lot of great schools out of state that have much better art programs, and since you still haven't actually decided what you want to do with your life, career-wise, I suggest that you start looking into schools that have good job outlooks for students who graduate from them.
     You might want to look into doing a double major, or double degree with something like business or communication. And if you can get a scholarship (or more, if you really try), that you should definitely look into double degree programs over double majors. That way you can transfer, get a masters in Art, and still get a bachelors in something else.
     5 years from now, you'll be a year out of college with a plane ticket back to the States from Australia, and you will be looking back on everything that you went through that brought you up to this point. You'll be thinking about all of those times when you questioned what you were doing with your life and why you had chosen a career path with such an unsatisfying future for so many. By this time in your life, you'll have meditated on these questions thoroughly, but you're not really going to stop for a while. More questions will be added to the list, and more obstacles are going to get in your way, but you just need to remember that you are doing this for you. Art is something that you love, and you are very lucky to have recognized that so early in your life.
     Whenever you start to doubt yourself, remember that and you'll pull through, so that on your plane ride back home (with an entire surfing team sitting around you, might I add), you will feel that happiness that you only ever really feel when you've done something that originally frightened you.
     Remember to keep an open mind about everything, because sometimes you'll see the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.

Happy studying!
Future You