I felt the need to write an obligatory birthday post. My birthday was Friday and this year I kept it pretty low-key. Lots of much-needed relaxation, quality time with friends and visiting family over the weekend. Friday was our first day of student teaching and I was greeted by twenty-three, hand-made cards from my third graders. It made me that much more excited for the coming months I get to spend with them. It's strange to think that this is my last birthday spent as an unmarried lady and that [hopefully] my twenty-third will be spent celebrating with my husband in our new home.
Woah...Strange.
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| September, 2010 |
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| October, 2010 |
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| August, 2011 |
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| June, 2012 |
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| September, 2013 |
Anyways, I can't believe I am now twenty-two. Twenty-one was a pretty calm year amidst lots of changes. Twenty, I would say, was my favorite year. I can only hope twenty-two will be just as good to me. What with student teaching, college graduation, a wedding, moving across the country, hopefully finding some kind of job and tons of changes mixed in and around those things, I can assume it will be...trying. I'm sure it will hold as many hellos as goodbyes, as many disappointments as accomplishments and as many lessons as rewards.
I've definitely learned some things in my mere-twenty-two years of living; things like,
It's okay to say no.
In fact, it's important to. Stop taking on the world and take some much-needed time for yourself. You can only stretch yourself so thin and take on so many things. Don't be a yes-man. Be selfish once in awhile. And don't feel bad about it. It will help keep you sane.
Garbage in, garbage out.
This applies to so many things; the food you eat, the habits you keep, the company you surround yourself with, the choices you make, the faith you demonstrate. If you fill your life, your body, your time and your energy on 'garbage' or even just negative things, you won't feel so good. You'll be tired emotionally, physically and mentally.
Trust me.
It's okay to look at houses going up for sale in the future, but focus on making the place you're living in now feel homey.
No, not literal houses. This is one of those, 'living in the now' pieces of advice without actually saying all those stupid cliches. And this is certainly one of my hardest lessons to learn. It's okay to look into the future. It's healthy even to have a plan. Most of us need those things to look forward to, or even a countdown to events and exciting thing happening in our lives. But we should focus on making the state of mind, the physically place and the events we're experiencing now, a kind of temporary home. And that's hard to do. We feel like as soon as we get settled into a new and present state of mind, things are going to change. So why even get settled at all. Do it. It'll help a lot of things.
Things could be worse.
This is kind of a 'grin and bear it' expression. But I've come to fully wrap myself around this sentence. Things could be worse. I think it helps in the moment and it really does help in the genuinity (is that a word?) of certain situations long-term. Let me explain. If you say in the moment that everything falls about "It could be worse!" It pacifies you for a little bit and you move on. In a little bit, when you actually evaluate the extent of the situation and think about the grand spectrum of it all, you start to think with a sane mind, "Oh wow, that really wasn't that bad," or even "At least I didn't...." or "It could have been..." It's okay to think like that, I think. It keeps you leaning on the positive side of life.
Never let anyone make you feel bad about your choices.
In a society where we always look for other's opinions or approval, most certainly in our teens and twenties, this is also one of the hardest lessons I've had to learn. Whether it's a small daily choice, a choice of not-doing something, or a major life choice, stop looking for approval and just do it. Sure, there are circumstances when you need to ask for someone else's opinion and that you should listen to it. Yes, older people are wiser and don't do that, it's dumb. But we all know those people who live their life questioning.
"Is this okay?"
"Can we do this?"
"Are we supposed to..."
"Oh I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that."
It's also about building confidence. Not in a stuck up way, but a sure-of-yourself way. That comes with age and experience. Maybe no one actually expects you to be that way in your teens or early twenties. But that person we all know, do we really want to live our lives like that? Always searching for someone else's approval? There is a time to ask, and time to not. There is certainly times to apologize and times to take true ownership of your life and your choices.
Not everyone will like you.
This is a hard one to learn as a human. It goes with the latter paragraph. Let's face it. We all want to be liked.
And when we're not?...
QUICK CHANGE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOURSELF.
Honestly, the sooner we realize not everyone is always going to like us, the better.
The perils of maturing, ladies and gentleman.
Everyone's different.
So don't take my lessons as concrete. What I need to learn might not necessarily be what you need to learn. But my oh my, I have learned in these past twenty-two years.
I can't wait to learn more.
Growing up is tricky.
And it is most certainly a learn-as-you-go game.
C'est la vie.
Such is life.
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