18 Lessons I Am Glad I Learned By 18

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1. Make no apologies for you who you are, so long as who you are is not hurting anyone else.

2. Never take the privilege of an education for granted. You are in a position many of those who have the ability yet not the means are envious of. You owe it to the world to do something great with the gift of the opportunities an education brings.

3. You need people. Everyone needs people. The world is a big, scary, and confusing place at times. No one can make it through life entirely on their own. Sometimes we all need a little help.

4. Forgive people not for their sake, but for yours. Holding a grudge is a waste of perfect happiness. You cannot control the hurtful actions of others but you can choose how long you allow those careless actions to have power over you and your happiness. To forgive someone else is to free yourself. Sometimes, we even have to learn to accept the apologies we never received.

5. We are all going to lose someone that we love. It’s just the way it works. It is going to hurt like hell each and every day. Sometimes you will miss them so much you can’t stand it. That just makes one more reason that we should love people as fiercely as possible, for every moment that we can, for these moments are fleeting. Missing someone can often be viewed as a blessing, for it means you were once fortunate enough to have someone in your life that was worthy of being missed.

6. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Learn to laugh at your mistakes. Unfortunate events (and unfortunate people) often make for the best stories in later years.

7. You’re not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. The best you can hope for is being someone’s shot of whiskey. Be who you are and the right people will love you.

8. Pay less attention to what others think about you and more attention to what you think about yourself. You are the one that has to go to sleep at night with the weight of the decisions you have made on your mind. If you’ve done what you feel to be right in your heart, you have done all that you can do.

9. Even the most amazing person you have ever met, is not as amazing as you think they are. Everyone has flaws and ultimately everyone will let you down. Be forgiving and have an understanding heart because chances are, they didn’t mean to. With every person we allow into our lives, we extend to them the opportunity to hurt us. Life is about deciding who is worth taking that chance.

10. It is truly all about the memories. When you’re young, you’re living the stories you will tell your grandchildren one day. You’re going to want to have some good ones. Life is far too short to be boring and you don’t always need eight hours of sleep.

11. Everyone is here for a reason, while some are only here for a season. Every person in your life has been placed in alignment to a greater plan far beyond your understanding; to teach you a lesson, to get you through a hard time. Some people are only meant to be there for a season in your life, and that’s okay. Learn to appreciate people for what they have taught you and how they’ve benefitted your life, but also learn that when it’s time to let go, you have to. People can have a place in your heart, but not in your life.

12. No matter how many days we are given, there are not enough days in our lives to spend any of them unhappy. Find what makes you happy and pursue it at all costs. Surround yourself with only the people who make you the happiest.

13. We all have a story and we all have faced a struggle. Be sensitive to others, for you never truly know the personal battles a person can be facing at any given moment.

14. Spoiler: It all works out in the end. By some mysterious force the world operates in a whirlpool commonly known as fate. It brings everything full circle and has a way of all too often showing us we were worrying over nothing. Lighten up and give yourself a break. You’re doing the best you can.

15. You can’t make everyone happy and by trying to do so you will only make yourself miserable. Your personal happiness is not worth sacrificing by trying to appease others that don’t even matter in the grand scheme of things.

16. It’s not about finding someone that makes you happy, it’s about being someone that makes you happy. I firmly believe you can’t be happy with someone else until you are happy with yourself.

17. There are two kinds of people; those who build you up and those who tear you down. Be thankful for the presence of both in your life and the way in which they fuel you towards your dreams and ambitions.

18. Even when you do terrible things, it doesn’t make you a terrible person. Thought Catalog Logo Mark

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