I’ve learned a lot in 26 years. Some lessons have been gentle, and have touched my life with grace and ease. Others have been harder, more grueling. But these lessons have all been blessings. These lessons have all led me to where I am and who I am. I hope that even just one little lesson resonates with you. I hope that even just one inspires you.

Here’s to learning and loving, crashing and soaring.

1. You don’t have to be beautiful to be accepted or loved; you don’t owe anyone beauty.

2. Let your heart be stubborn. The best people will fall in love with your stubborn heart.

3. You never ever need a reason to be good to people, and you never need a reason to love people.

4. Teach your mind how to love your body.

5. When you let go of the person who wasn’t right for you, your heart may still hurt. This doesn’t mean that you made the wrong decision. It just means that what you shared was genuine.

6. Lifting someone else up doesn’t drag you down. It lifts you both higher.

7. Let your heart break a little, every single day. For the break in your heart lets the vulnerability out and the love in.

8. You never need to beg someone to love you. If they love you, they will join you.

9. Sometimes what you deserve isn’t the same as what you want. Sometimes you deserve a whole lot more than what you want. So you have to let go of what you crave, and wait for what you deserve.

10. You are a privilege to love. It will be someone’s privilege to love you.

11. Your body isn’t your work of art, your life is. Paint it beautifully.

12. Trust the timing of your life. See the beauty in the way we all have different timings.

13. All that matters is what makes you happy. How other people see you is a reflection of them, not of you.

14. Your heart will know what’s right for you and what’s wrong for you. Trust it.

15. Life might not make sense forwards. But it does make sense backwards. One day you will see that all along the dots connected. All along you were moving in the right direction. .

16. Don’t ever stop speaking up. Don’t ever stop doing the right thing. A heart of gold is rare, so always let it shine.

17. When you lose someone, you’re always going to have an empty space in your heart. Fill the space with love. Fill the space with courage. Let a little piece of them forever live in the little space in you.

18. Anything that costs you your sense of well-being is too expensive.

19. Let go of what you expected your life would look like and celebrate what it does looks like.

20. You may not always be the smartest person in the room but you can always be the kindest.

21. You aren’t for everyone, and that’s okay. Look for the people who love you passionately. These are your people.

22. Don’t hold yourself hostage to who you are or to who you used to be. You can reinvent yourself daily. There are no limitations on starting over.

23. You don’t have the power to choose the cards you are dealt. But you do have the power to choose how you play them.

24. Seasons come and go. How you feel today, tomorrow, this month, or even this year isn’t going to last forever.

25. Pay attention to anything or anyone that makes you feel like you are home. Chase the feeling.

26. Even if today is the worst day of your life, tomorrow could still be the best day. Don’t give up.