Growing up, I learned several things from my parents and peers, but here are a few things I learned myself.

A clean house is a boring house.

Don't get me wrong, I do not want my house to be a complete mess. However, after years of having to immediately pick up toys or food the exact moment you were done with them, whether it be in the living room or your bedroom, it gets a little old. The house always had to be extremely clean, looking like no one even lived there. That is not very fun. I would like my house to have reminders that people actually do live there, maybe even a little dust on the window sill.

Family vacations are the best vacations.

With parents who worked long hours, I loved being able to actually spend a week or two with them away from home. We were fortunate enough to go on vacation, big or small, once or twice a year. On vacation, my parents finally had their minds off of business mode and on fun mode. When we are on vacation, I saw a whole different side to them that I missed when they were at work. So if you have the opportunity to go on a family getaway trip, take it.

College should be an option.

College was a must in my household. Parents usually want their kids to have what they did not have, or to be more successful than them. Nothing wrong with that. To do that I had to go to college, right? I had to get the best grades in school to get in to the best college to get the best job. At least, that is what I thought growing up. Now, I know that there are several other options instead of going to college, and people should have the complete freedom to explore those without judgment from others.

Failure should also be an option.

I grew up with immense pressure to succeed and was afraid of the consequences if I were to fail at something. Success seemed to be the only option so I did everything I could to achieve it. Of course, I did, in fact, have failures. Unfortunately, instead of learning from those failures, I beat myself up over them and found it hard to move on. As I grew older, I realized that failures were actually normal and I was perfectly human for having them.

There is such a thing as enough money.

The more money you have, the more you want, and the more you have to lose. It consumes you and your life starts to revolve around it.I think it is important to remind ourselves that there is always someone who may be less fortunate than us so be happy with what you have and what you earn.

People will judge you no matter what lifestyle you come from.

Whether you have a lot of money or a little, chances are you are going to be judged in some way or another. People will judge you for wearing name brand clothing, just as much as they will judge you for wearing something from Walmart. It is a problem that I do not see getting resolved any time soon, so the most we can do about it is to not judge others based on what they do, or do not ,have.

Overall, I truly am grateful of how I grew up. There were mountains and valleys and I am thankful for the lessons I learned from them. It has given me a great outlook as to how I may want to live my life as I grow older.