1. You can’t force someone to love you. No matter how much you love and care about someone, you can’t force them to feel the same way about you. You can give them all they’ve ever needed and asked for, and then some, and they won’t love you.

2. Some people mature faster than others. Just because you might be mature for your age, doesn’t mean everyone else has the same mental mindset as you do. There could be a 16-year-old with the mindset of a 30-year-old, and a 30-year-old with the mindset of a 16-year-old. It all depends on how you were raised and the events that happened in your life that forced you to mature faster.

3. People will leave you without a reason. Just like you can’t force people to love you, you can’t force people to stay in your life either. Sometimes people decide they need a change in their life, and with that change means leaving you behind. They don’t know why, or sometimes they don’t care to tell you why, they just leave you sitting there in the dark wondering what you did so wrong.

4. Losing someone at a young age teaches you to cherish time with those you love. While we might not have fully understood what it meant for someone to die when we were younger, the older we got, the more reality started to set in and the more we learned to cherish those we love.

5. Listen to your parents. They may nag and repeat themselves a million times, but they do it for a reason. Growing up, we tend to think we know best, but in reality, they really do. They’ve lived through more, experienced more, and been where we are before.

6. Talk to your grandparents. Their stories, life advice, and voices will be what carries us through our life. When we don’t want to listen to our parents, they will be there with advice for us too. Once they’re gone, you’re going to wish you talked to them and listened to them more.

7. Take your own advice. If you’re anything like me, you’re great at giving advice to your friends but when it comes to needing advice on a similar situation, you don’t listen to yourself. Learn how to take your own advice and become more dependent on yourself, rather than dependent on the advice of others.

8. Forgive, but never forget. Forgive those that have done you wrong, but never forget what they have done. People do not deserve to get multiple chances when they continually do you wrong. Forgive them and don’t hold grudges.

9. Happiness is a choice. People often think that happiness comes from others, and that happiness is a temporary feeling. But that is not the case. Happiness is a choice that we can all make by eliminating the negativity, and taking the people who bring you down out of your life.

10. Never miss an opportunity to tell people you love them. Sometimes that’s all people need to hear in order to brighten their day and know that you care.

11. Don’t regret things, especially those that once made you smile. Often, you hear people talking about things, such as friendships or relationships, saying how much they regret ever being with that person. At one point or another, that person was all you wanted and they made you happy. Even though things might have happened and you might have ended on bad terms, they played an important part in your life story and have helped shape you into the person you are today.

12. Choose your words carefully. Even though they always say “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” words do hurt. Though they might be unintentional, they still hurt and may cause people to second guess if you ever really cared.

13. Never lose touch with your inner child. As we grow older, we tend to forget about the little things that would bring us so much joy during our childhood. We sometimes need a little reminder of those so we don’t grow old and grumpy.

14. Be careful who you give your heart to. Not everyone you meet deserves to know you from the inside out. That being said, not everyone you meet deserves to have your heart or know what is kept in it. Guard it with all you have because one day someone special is going to come into your life and they’re going to be the one who deserves it.

15. Try new things. Never let the adventurous part of you die out. Try new things, go to new places, explore every chance you get.

16. Ask every person you meet how their day is going. Sometimes that all it takes to start a conversation, and potentially a great friendship. It also lets people know that at least one person cares and that is all people need sometimes.

17. Tough times will pass. It may seem like your world is coming to an end, but it’s a bad day, not a bad life. Everyone has tough times and they will eventually pass for everyone.

18. You don’t need to explain yourself to everyone. People expect a lot of answers that we can’t always give them, and they’ll get mad. They’ll expect explanations and reasons and answers that you might not always have. Don’t stress over it, because you don’t need to explain yourself to everyone. It’s your life, not theirs.

19. Don’t forget to sit back, relax, and smile. Life doesn’t have a pause button, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take a pause to just sit back, relax, and smile.