November is coming and that means my teen years will soon be over. I turn twenty in November and it is crazy as to what I have learned so far in my short life. I hope that what I have learned from the past will help me have a brighter future.

Here are some of the things I hope to take from what I have learned and put them in action for my next 20 years:

Friends

Friends come and go, but family is forever. Growing up, I definitely feel as if from time to time I put friends above my family. I would miss time with my family to go hang out with the people who I thought would be lifelong friends. If someone is my true friend, they will understand that family is first and that they come second. Down the road, I hope to build life long friendships, but with mature people instead of childish ones.

Family

Now to go off of the last part, family should always come first. That is something I plan to live by from now on. Family is the biggest support system someone can have. Growing up, I didn't realize that. I would always take out my anger and problems on my family, when in reality, they were just trying to help. From now on, I plan to take in their advice and let them help instead of pushing them away.

Work

Being a sophomore in college, I have two more school years till I fully go into the real work world. It's crazy that soon I will be working on building a career instead of just having a job. I have worked retail and most recently in the restaurant business, but that is not what I will be doing forever. One day I want to work with animals and disabled children. The skills I have learned from my different jobs are just the simple skills I need to have when I move forward in the workplace.

Health

Within twenty years I have had some health problems and a ton of injuries. I now have ongoing pain and problems that may or may not get worse as I get older. As time goes on, I plan on being more cautious with what I do and more careful when I do something that could possibly result in me injuring myself. With getting older, my bones won't be able to handle breaks as well as they possibly did when I was younger. Starting now, I will be very focused on ways to avoid injury.

Me

In this point of my life, it is time to make time for myself and be a little selfish. Growing up and till now, I always say yes when someone needs me to do something. Due to this, I have never really had time for myself and this causes me to feel stressed out or down about myself. It's time to start saying no to things if it means I am going to be overwhelmed. I need to have personal time to relax and think about me.

I look forward to my next twenty years.