As a 20 year old, I most definitely do not have all of the answers to life or know the key to happiness. I do however, have experiences that have taught me a whole plethora of things and that is what I want to share with you, hoping in some way it resonates with you or is just what you needed to hear. So let's get to the point, this is what I've learned about........
Friends. It's a great TV show. anyway, seriously let's talk about friends. Throughout life you make so many friends and when you are making memories with them, you tend to think that they are going to be in your life forever. But sadly that isn't the reality of it. Friends come and go, it's inevitable. Sometimes it'll hurt but understand that people grow apart and life will take you on separate paths. You may become entirely different people than who you were when that friendship started, which is completely fine life changes you. You'll make new friends along the way that are on your new path of life, some of them will come into your life and stay forever. The friends who stay by your side through the tough times of self discovery, losses of loved ones, awkward phases, wild times, those who are honest and have played such a key role in who you are today and who you want to be. Those are the forever friends. Those are the bridesmaids/groomsmen in your wedding and the godparents to your future children. You will make these friends throughout your entire life and making new friends, although slightly terrifying, is completely exciting! Know that some people are only meant to be in your life temporarily but don't lose the memories you had with them and don't forget who they are. Understand the beauty of getting to know someone new. Learn their stories that lead them to be who they are today, where they want to go, what they want to do. Be their shoulder to cry on, their therapist, their 2am drives and most of all be their person. To all my loves. Thank you for staying with me through it all even when it hasn't been the easiest. You know who you are and I love you dearly. If we are in the beginning a new friendship, I already adore you so much and I look forward to making new memories with you. Wanna be friends? there is always room for more. here's to building new relationships, strengthening current ones, and appreciating old ones. Social Media. Ahhhh the thing I love to hate. I have always been someone who just has social media to be myself and stay connected to others but good grief is it an annoying thing. As a society we have become SOOOO obsessed with what everyone else is doing that we often loose ourselves in the process. You only post what you want people to see and social media provides you with a platform that allows you to be a totally different person than who you actually are. But I urge you to realize the level of addiction we are all experiencing. I took a step away from social media a while back and it was the best 4 months of my life because there were stories people had to tell me since I didn't see the video/picture/status they posted. Oh, how I miss the beauty of telling stories of an experience. We have come to a time where it is more of a "oh yeah I saw your post of instagram" reaction to a story and rarely a "wow really? that sounds amazing, tell me more!" reaction because chances are they saw you post somewhere about it. It took me stepping away from it all to really come to terms with what I had been using my social media for, sadly it was for acceptance and not myself. Now mind you it was in high school when I did this and I barely even knew who I was in real life, making it hard to know what I should portray on social media. I don't completely hate social networking, heck if it wasn't for instagram half of you wouldn't read my blogs anyway :) I'm simply saying that through realizing the level of control it can take over your life, it will become clearer to you the need to pull yourself away from it every once and a while. It's sad that it took me completely cutting myself off from social media to understand the addiction I had and the toll it took on my self-esteem and attitude but that realization and social media detox lead me to discover more of who I am in reality and allowed me to become more involved with what is actually happening around me. So please just sometimes put the phone down and experience what is around you. Stop using the phone at the dinner table. Pick up a magazine and read current issues in the dentist office instead of scrolling through twitter. You are more than the likes, comments and shares you receive and not everyone needs to know everything about your life. Keep some things for people to discover on their own and of course make sure it's a person who deserves to know those special things about you. Mean People. HA! They are everywhere and sometimes they are even people you were once friendly with. There will always be someone who decides to say something negative and judgmental, sadly. Just know these people, be aware of them and distance yourself from them. We all have experienced mean people, it is a way in life. Whether it's through a subtweet, indirect post on Facebook, or a rude comment on Instagram, it is all something we have witnessed, been on the receiving end of it or even the person doing it. Don't ever let someone affect your happiness or level of self worth because of what they say or believe about you. If they are going out of their way to say something about you and people feed into that, it'll show you more about the human race than you ever could imagine. The best advice I have ever gotten from was "there will always be people who don't like you and people who will have something judgmental to say about whatever it is that you are doing. It's a fact of life. Whatever they say, just know that it says more about their character than it does for yours" and that to this day is something I repeat to myself to get me through the tough moments. If someone is mean to you just step back and think or even say to them "I feel so bad for you that you don't love yourself enough or life has treated you in such a way that the only happiness you get is by putting other people down." Whatever they say, isn't true. You are beautiful just the way you are (like Bruno Mars said lol). No matter what race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, sexual preference, culture, religion you are or what you wear, what your size is, how much makeup you do/don't wear, where you shop, your economic status, etc. You truly are beautiful and don't ever give someone the power to make you feel any other way.. You are unique and there is no one out there like you. You are loved by SOOOOOO many people for being exactly who you are and don't forget that. Be kind. Spread love & love yourself for everything you are. You're perfect. and Life. oh my how life is such a short precious thing. Something so valuable and taking for granted, not on purpose but we tend to overlook the reality of life. It can end at any moment, scary I know and I'm sure it sounds a bit more morbid than you were expecting but because I have suffered from the loss of so many loved ones, as I am sure all of you have, I was forced to understand the reality of life. We all have a timer attached to us that begins counting down from the moment we are born to the moment we take our last breath. In this amount of time we want to learn, grow, live on your own, bond with family, make friends, become successful for something you are passionate about, fall in love and live our lives to the fullest. But the scary reality of this timer we have is, we don't know the amount of time we started with and we don't know how much time is left. I urge you to live for today, live for this moment. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not next year. Live for right now. I actually believe there is beauty and a sense of freedom when you come to this realization that life is not a permanent thing and live truly as if tomorrow it could all be over. You become fearless, passionate and make unbelievable memories with people you love. There are no limits. You want to go to Europe, okay buy the tickets. You want to skydive, find the place that provides that and go. You want to see family members you grew apart from, get in the car and go. You want to go on an adventure, find a place, grab some friends and go. You want to be a nicer person, compliment that girl you pass everyday at 8 a.m. with amazing looking makeup/ cute jacket or even just say hello, you wouldn't believe how much a simple hello can change a persons day. Buy the next person in line coffee. Bring your mom flowers. Make your loved ones feel appreciated. Mend old friendships that were left on odd terms or ended for a dumb reason. Apologize to people you have done wrong. Teach yourself a new skill. Whatever it is you want to do, please do it. Live for today!
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