As the week draws nearer to my 18th birthday when I become legal and eligible to buy lottery tickets (not that I would, but I'm just saying), I find myself stumbling upon things that I've learned throughout my life. Like learning how to drive or accepting that it's okay to not have a huge group of friends. I've learned from my parents, friends, teachers, and from my mistakes that life is not perfect and it never will be, but lessons learned can make life better and easier. It makes it beautiful.
1. It's okay to not have a lot of friends
Don't get me wrong -- I have friends. But I've always thought I needed to have a big group of friends to do everything with. I would get really sad thinking that I somehow don't measure up because "everyone else" at school had tons of people they'd hang out with, while I was sitting around wondering why I don't have more friends. But then I realized that the handful of true friends that I do have is more valuable to me than being part of a clique, which always seemed, to me, like a group of people faking friendships; maybe because -- like me -- they were afraid that not having more friends mean that you're not likable, so they try to befriend as many people as they can to make them feel better about themselves. I'm not saying that having a lot of friends is bad, because it's not. But honestly for me, I have a hard time clicking with certain types of people, so I'd always get upset that I'm not making any new friends. But then I just think about my closest friends and think, "Why I would ever need to have new friends? The ones I have are hard to come by, and no one can take their place." So I learned that It's better having fewer really good, close friends than to keep track of a whole group of people.
2. Laughter is the best policy
As someone who loves to laugh and does it all the time, you'd think that I would have known that by now. But it wasn't until I was with one of my best friends a few weeks ago laughing away over something ridiculously funny to us -- but to everyone else it probably wasn't that funny that I realized that laughing just makes life better. Especially when you're with someone who makes it easy. Although it may hurt your stomach if you're laughing too hard, it's something that instantly changes my mood for the better.
3. Being an adult isn't what I thought it was going to be
Although there are many fun aspects of being an (almost) adult, there are certain things that aren't exactly what I expected them to be. For example, driving alone. I always thought that driving by myself would be exciting and adventurous, but as it turns out, it's more boring than adventurous. At first, it was pretty exciting, but now sometimes I dread having to drive alone without a co-pilot to sing along to the radio. When I was little, I would play "house" and pretend that I was a teenager who has their life altogether, but then I grew up and my perspective changed. Now I know that nobody has their life altogether. Being an adult means that life will get messy, but it's up to you to clean it up the best you can. You can never clean the grooves all the way or dust something super high, but you can clean it up enough to be content -- if that makes sense.
4. Don't take anything for granted
Don't just go through the motions of life and forget about the things that made you truly happy. My childhood, for example, is something that I wish every day that I could go back to and really let all the fun moments sink in. Now that I'm approaching 18 in a few days, I wish that I was still a kid so that life wouldn't always be so complicated and I could play with whatever toy I wanted. I miss everything about being a kid. I know that as a kid you don't really think that way, but now that I look back, I wish that I would have made the best out of every situation.
5. Kindness is key
My parents have always taught me to be kind to everyone I encounter. Whether that be my best friend, elders, teachers, and even people who I'm not particularly fond of. My dad has always said that being kind to others not only makes people want to be around you more, but it will make you feel good. Kindness isn't something you find often in this world today, so I try to be the kindness that the world is missing. Now, I'm not saying that being kind just comes naturally for me, because it doesn't. There are times that I really just don't feel like being nice, (I think we all have those days) but if I can make the effort to smile at someone, or ask how their day was, compliment them, it might just make their day a little brighter. I know that when others have been nice to me, my day instantly gets better. It's pretty simple, do unto others what you want others to do unto you.
6. Try your best
This is pretty straightforward, but it's good to know this. Throughout high school, I've encountered some hardships in a few classes. Let's take math for example. This is NOT my strongest subject and it never will be. There have been times when I felt like giving up. My test scores were not the best and that would bring my grade down a lot, and I wouldn't feel like doing my homework because I knew that I wouldn't understand it. I would lose faith. I would never put my all into something that was hard for me. Now, I've learned that you may not be good at something, or you won't like doing it, but if you try your best and give it your all, good things will come out of it, like passing a class.
7. Don't be afraid to step outside your comfort zone
This is something that I've always struggled with. I'm a pretty introverted person, so stepping outside my comfort zone is sometimes hard for me. I've had to go through awkward social interactions, act super silly when I felt like curling up into a ball, speak in front of my class, and even parallel park on a busy road (I don't do well with pressure, so this was huge). I'm sure there has been plenty more cringe-worthy moments in my life, but you get the point. Although those times were all really scary for me, they taught me to persevere through moments that bring me outside of my comfort zone. Do something even though you may feel like throwing up (not literally, but figuratively, of course). If you never do things outside your comfort zone, then how are you going to continue to grow as a person? How will you learn new things? Don't put up walls, be an open field with room to run.
8. Life is beautiful
The sign on my bedroom wall inspired me to write about this. It simply says, life is beautiful. There are so many reasons why I can back that up, but that would make this article a novel, so I'll just stick to a few basics. First of all, just look outside. Everything around you is just beautiful. It's hard to believe that our God made this whole universe, because how can you create such a striking sunrise? Fall is my favorite season because it's when nature's true colors come out. It makes my heart so full to see the beauty that God created. It's hard for me to even fathom the greatness of His creation. On another thought, don't you just pause sometimes and think, life is the best gift I've ever been given? I have. All that really needs to be said is, life is beautiful.
These are just a few things that I've learned so far. I know I'll learn more valuable lessons in my future. God is full of surprises, and I'm sure He has plenty of them in store for me throughout the rest of my beautiful life.
