1. Clean up your messes - your room after a hectic week, your lipstick after a long night, the broken heart on the kitchen floor…just clean it up.
2. Say you're sorry- I promise you will never regret apologizing. If you do, I will stand corrected.
3. Get your hands dirty and sticky and muddy and calloused- these will be signs that you either played hard, worked hard, or got yourself into a situation that you must have come out smarter from.
4. Share- Share your food, share your thoughts, share your love and hopes and dreams and fears. You'll be glad you shared, and you never know the effect you'll have on those you're generous with.
5. “Make new friends but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold." (Thank you Girl Scouts.)
6. Be proud of yourself, even for the little things. You remembered someone's name that you've just met? Be proud, I'm sure there have been times when someone's forgotten yours. You didn't hit the snooze button once? Be proud, some days I bet your snooze button wishes it could hit its own snooze button. Big victories are composed of little feats.
7. Take care of your wounds. Put bandaids on a scraped knee, take a warm bath after a brutal day, let yourself cry and let yourself heal.
8. Laugh all the time. Laugh at dumb jokes and at school and when something funny happens and when nothing happens at all. If you don't have laughter, what do you have?
9. Take time for yourself.Whether it is for sleeping, pretending to sleep, giggling, or just breathing, nap time is a time for yourself. Take advantage of it.
10. There are very few things that scotch tape, a hug, or a chocolate chip cookie can't fix.
11. Stick up for your friends.
12. Include yourself as a friend.
13. There are things that are invisible. This does not mean that they aren't real.
14. Every hero needs a sidekick, every Spongebob needs a Patrick, every Squidward needs his clarinet. No matter where you find it, companionship is essential. More importantly, companionship is fun.
15. People will hurt you without meaning to. Treat them kinder than they treated you. They will remember your graciousness. Even if they don't, you will, and you will feel better for it.
16. Don't skip, don't push, don't snitch. Play fair.
17. Explore and adventure at any opportunity. There comes a day when we stop seeing the living room carpet as hot lava and the kitchen floor as an art easel. This day is a tragedy.
18. Your feet are happiest when they are bare.
19. Big girls (and boys) don't cry, but sometimes we crave feeling little again. It's okay to cry.
20. Your siblings are gifts that you (thankfully) can never return.
21. Sometimes you'll be the cop and sometimes you'll be the robber. That's how life goes.
22. Sometimes boys will pick on you because they like you. This isn't an excuse.
23. Mama knows best.
24. Keeping score gets tiring fast.
25. Love, and never ever stop.