A few (of many) lessons I’ve learned in the past year:
1. ”You’re not a $100 bill—not everyone’s going to like you.” One of my friend said that. It’s true—no matter how popular or well-liked you are, not everyone will like you. As long as you are loved by someone you can call home and have some true, good friends who will always be there for you, you’re going to be alright. I mean, there are people who don’t like me. There are some people I don’t blame for not liking me, because I don’t like them either. There are people who won’t like you because one of their friends doesn’t like you. There are people who won’t like you because you have brown hair, the way you talk, the kind of music you listen to, because you have a purple mailbox. . . the list goes on forever. All you can do is accept the fact that everyone isn’t going to like you and cherish the people who do like you.
2. If someone doesn’t like you and accept you for who you are, they aren’t worth hanging around with. It’s just going to bring you down.
3. Don’t let anyone bring you down!! You are who you are, be proud of that! You need to have confidence in yourself to be successful in everything.
4. People need people. There are going to be people you really can’t live without. You need your best friends, your mom, your teachers, your inspirations. People can belong to each other (so long as you aren’t allowing anyone to control you).
5. Nothing is more important than love and friendship. They go hand in hand: you need to be a close, good and trustworthy friend to be a good boyfriend or girlfriend. You also need to be in love with your friends (not romantically) to make the friendship work. It can’t be one person giving and the other taking all the time in any relationship. You also need to slow down once in a while and really think about what you’re doing, especially if you’re thinking of giving up. If you want someone to be there to pull you through the tough times, you’ve gotta be there to pull them. Love and friendship aren’t things to throw away—they’re what you should hold tightly on to every day.
6. You can’t live with a million regrets. Things will happen; you’re going to make mistakes in life that you’ll wish never happened. You’ll beat yourself up over hurting someone and feel bad because you hurt them, but you need to move on. Dwelling in the past will just make your present depressing and your future dim.
7. You need to know when to forgive someone, and when to say “You know what? You’re not sorry. I don’t forgive you. . . I quit.”
8. It’s alright to be a little off-beat. Right now, I’m wearing an orange t-shirt and blue plaid cut-off pajama pants. There’s a wine glass with a daisy in it (as a vase) on my bookshelf jars of buttons on my desk. . . yeah. It’s more fun to march to the beat of your own drum than to constantly stay with the band. You’ll enjoy life more if you don’t act like everyone else (and, once in a while, it also keeps you out of trouble).
9. Bad things will happen. Someone close to you might get cancer, your friends might ditch you, you might get a few bad grades. People can be mean, the weather isn’t always good. When everything piles up and you’re going through hell, it’s perfectly fine to break down and cry. What’s important is pulling through. Eat a whole box of macaroni and cheese and a gallon of ice cream and watch your favorite movies. Call/email someone who always makes you smile. Get a hug from someone who will always love you. Get help (if you need it) to keep going, and remember that someone out there loves you and needs you. No matter how much you feel like you’ll never smile again, you will.
10. Your grades aren’t important. Well, they are, but not to the extent everyone thinks. What’s more important than the facts you learn to get that A+ is the knowledge you gain from your classes. It’s being able to have an intelligent discussion with someone and develop your own theories and opinions. It’s applying history and math or English to your everyday life. It’s learning from your mistakes and gaining knowledge to do better in the future. It’s finding out what you love to learn about—once you find what you love to learn about, you’ll excel in that subject simply because you love it~ ♥.
