Twenty-something lessons learned

As I turn a year older this week, I sit back and reflect on the year that has gone by. And as I do so, I can’t help but notice all the lessons life has taught me in it. And although some of them were more bitter than not to live through, they were nonetheless important experiences for me to face, to learn from.

Today, I want to share some of those lessons with you, in the hopes that maybe they will aid someone out there in some way. After all, its best to learn from others’ mistakes than to go making your own, right?

1. Sometimes you will trust the wrong people. It will hurt but you have to realize that it was not your fault and you will have to forgive yourself for it.
2. Words can hurt more than you realize, so be careful with them.
3. No one is irreplaceable, except your mother! If someone leaves your side, it is only to make space for another person. So stop fretting over the ones who walk away!
4. On that note, remember this-hold your family close to yourself but your mother even closer. She is God’s greatest gift to you!
5. Stop thinking about what others think of you and stop trying to see yourself from their eyes. Don’t re-type that text. Don’t reread what you sent! Learn to see yourself from your own eyes, learn to love what you see. Celebrate every part of yourself!
6. Believe in miracles. That girl with the three rounds of failed pregnancies will call you from the hospital nursery post the birth of her twins. Your friend will get to marry the man she always loved. The class fellow who seemed to fail at everything will finally meet up with you and brag about all that they have achieved.
7. Absolute honesty can at times hurt more than you can imagine. Don’t learn to lie, but do learn to identify the exact point where you need to, well, shut up.
8. Love freely, but expect none in return. If you do, that is recipe for disaster. If you don’t, you shed half of your troubles.
9. Buy those Stan Smiths. They never go out of style!
10. Use the words that broke you the most as your biggest strength. Let them drive you to be your best self!
11. Humility is the sexiest attribute to possess. That and intelligence.
12. Opening about your insecurities isn’t easy, but if you talk to the right people about them you will be fine. If you choose the wrong person, don’t worry. The right ones will come along soon enough and help erase any harm done.
13. Don’t pick up that call your instinct tells you not to. F**k your heart. Trust your mind in this one,
14. Put your strengths in a box, block out everything else and focus on just them. Everything will then fall in place.
15. Also, block every form of hater and hatred from your life. Don’t be mean, but just don’t give space to negativity in your life.
16. Being young means you will make mistakes no matter how careful you are, so cut yourself some slack and enjoy life a bit.
17. You can’t control every situation, it is just not humanly possible. So if things don’t go according to plan, don’t beat yourself down on it. Instead let yourself go with the flow for once!
18. It is okay to have dreams different from your peers, you don’t have to want what others around you want.
19. If your career is your number one priority, not only is that perfectly fine, but anyone who tells you otherwise doesn’t have your best interests at heart. If they love you, they will support you no matter what, that is how simple the equation is. No ‘raised to the powers’, no variables in this one!
20. Some people will hurt you no matter how much you love them and some will love you no matter how much hurt them. Cut out the former kind from your life, and start valuing the later group. Those are the ones that will be sitting proudly in the front row, cheering you on for every single one of your accomplishments, because they will be part of the reason you got on the stage in the first place!
21. Your mom was right about there being a specific way to fold your laundry and to do the dishes and to dry the dishes. In fact, she was right about almost everything. You are old enough now to admit that.
22. But maybe not old enough yet to admit how much like her you have become!
23. Don’t let yourself be walked over by anyone, no matter how important they are to you or how much you love them. No one should have that kind of power over you, period.