(Insert awkward smile emoji face here).
25 is a quarter of a century and that number just sounds BIG.
I know I've been MIA the past little while, my bad about that. My parents are currently in town for a visit - so this may be my only post for the week, but I'll be back soon!
I've decided to try and come up with 25 things that all 25-year old's should know.
- One. What goes up, must come down.
This one feels kind of self-explanatory, but I didn't know about this until I spit in the air, and it came back down and landed in my eye. True story.
- Two. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
Oh, Newton - you're kind of a jerk for this one... but it's true. I learned this lesson by slamming a revolving door.
- Three. Fear is just False Evidence Appearing Real.
This is one that I learned a few years ago - and it's one of my favorite pieces of advice. Everyone should remember this one. Most of the time, our fears are not real - it's just false evidence appearing real that scares us. Try and allow yourself to overcome this.
- Four. Always follow your gut.
Seriously, it's never wrong. The few times that I haven't followed my gut, I have made the wrong decisions. Like that first date where the guy stole my phone charger - 100% avoidable if I had just trusted my gut.
- Five. The source of most of your frustrations and anxiety are the result of living in the future, or the past.
Stop living in the past and stop worrying about the future. Only worry about the present and what's here now and what you can manage and take care of. - Six. You don't always have to be right, but you should always do the right thing.
This one is hard, but it's the best piece of advice you can ever pass on to your children, and your children's children, and their children's children. Just try and remember to do this. - Seven. Haters gon' hate, potaters gon' potate.
I try and use this piece of advice for my friends when they're dealing with awkward situations with 'haters'. Let the haters hate, and if you just want to be depressed about it... eat some delicious taters instead. Who doesn't love some taters? Mashed taters, baked taters, tater tots... they're all good. Don't tell me they're not because I'll tell you that you're full of lies. - Eight. There’s always some truth behind ‘just kidding,’ knowledge behind ‘I don’t know,’ emotion behind ‘I don’t care,’ and pain behind: ‘It’s okay.’ So pay close attention to how people feel.
I don't think that this one needs an explanation, like at all. - Nine. You don’t drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.
I'm getting a little deep here today - deep like the water, ha. Pun intended. - Ten. You can’t please everyone.
“I don’t know the secret to success, but the secret to failure is trying to please everyone” – Bill Cosby.
This man knows about JELLO, so I mean, obviously I trust him. But seriously - the sooner you realize that you'll never please everyone, the better. - Eleven. Life is 10% of what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.
Try and think about things before you react, I promise that it makes a huge difference. - Twelve. Life is like a party.
Party like it's 1999. Or whenever. Just live life like a party and I'll be in the corner sipping on my double-vodka diet cokes. kaythanks. - Thirteen. Never struggle to chase love, affection, or attention. If it isn’t given freely by another person, it isn’t worth having.
I'm mainly trying to remind myself of this one. It's a valuable lesson that I've learned numerous times over and over again. Love, affection, and attention just don't matter if you have to beg for it. - Fourteen. Embrace your weirdness.
If you're weird, just go with it and let it happen. Who wants to be normal? Not me. If you've ever gotten a snapchat from me or looked at my instagram feed, you'll know that I fully embrace my weirdness. The weirder, the better. - Fifteen. Giving up and moving on are two very different things.
This one took me a long time to learn and its something that I try and remind myself of whenever I am in a situation where I need to 'move on' or 'give up'. - Sixteen. Honesty is the best policy.
...unless you find a policy that involves unciorns, glitter, rainbows, and lollipops. That would be the best policy ever, and beats honesty every time. - Seventeen. Music is good for the soul.
Maybe it's just me, but I haven't met a problem or a life situation that I haven't been able to handle/tackle/deal with that couldn't be fixed or helped by listening to music. - Eighteen. Fall in love when you’re ready, not when you’re lonely.
I feel like this is a good piece of advice, and it's a piece of advice that I'm actively taking... clearly. Because I'm clearly always single and not 'ready'. - Nineteen. Trying to be cool or following trends is for mindless sheep.
This follows my other post about embracing your weirdness. Don't be a follower, and don't be a sheep. Who wants to be a sheep? I mean, yeah - they're cute and fluffy and they're all like 'baaaaaa', but no. Be yourself. - Twenty. Dance everyday.
I literally have a dance party everyday, and it makes my life a lot better. How can you be sad or in a bad mood when you're dancing? I'll give you a hint... you can't. - Twenty-One. Patience is a virtue.
I'm going to thank Mr. Miagi for this one - and my dad. Sometimes it sucks to have to be patient in life - but it's for the best. Wax on, wax off. - Twenty-Two. When I lost all of my excuses, I found all of my results.
This one is completely about my weight-loss. It took me 24 years to learn the importance of this and to learn to not make excuses for things anymore. It's something that I continue to work on - Every. Single. Day - but I can assure you that you'll never get ahead by making excuses all the time. - Twenty-Three. Never let one bad day make you feel like you have a bad life.
Been there, done that, didn't get the t-shirt. It's not worth it to go down that dark road. If you're having a bad day, just have a bad day and don't start questioning your whole life - you literally gain nothing and do nothing beneficial for yourself by doing this. - Twenty-Four. You can grow stronger from the pain if you don’t let it destroy you.
Except if you get kicked in the nuts. I obviously don't know this from experience - but I've heard that getting kicked in the nuts is pretty painful. - Twenty-Five. The only time you should look back is to see how far you’ve come.
Except if you have to do a shoulder check when you're driving, or if you need to walk backwards, or if someone behind you shouts your name. But other than these exact excuses, just don't look back. Physically or metaphorically. The past 24 years have been amazing and today begins the journey of the rest of my life from my Quarter Life onwards.
