13 Things I’ve Learned Halfway Through My 26th Year
I think 26 feels like the new 25. People still tell you “Oh, you’re so young” but you don’t appreciate such a remark if it hints that they are poking at your wisdom or experiences. Why? Simply because the shadows of the big 30 which is a ripening age, lurk ahead of you.
Here’s a list of things that I’ve been reminded of or have learned this year. (The list is not in any order of priority.)
1. The amount of time spent being angry about something is totally up to you — even if the cause is recurring.
2. You may have a teacher’s budget but a student’s salary. It doesn’t matter where you work, sometimes there will just be an imbalanced scale.
3. Sometimes crying is necessary or may be the last resort. It’s good for when you are lost for words, feeling exhausted or frustrated. It’s also good to make you see how you will come out of a dark hole. On that note, any genre of music can make you cry even if a song is considered to be a jolly one.
4. Negative and deceitful people are everywhere. You can learn from them but if you stick around them you may not even notice your assimilation.
5. Prayers are helpful. (Sorry atheists, I needed to include that.)
6. A friend should never be too busy living their life to not be a friend, but it happens.
7. Worries are nasty weeds in your life. They need to be clipped early before they become destructive.
8. “All we need is love.” Well, thank you, Beatles. I agree but we really need to work on self love during our younger years. This is not a vain comment. Relying on someone’s company to make you happy is self destructive. Someone’s company should make you appreciate that they can love what you love with or without them.
9. In this life, occasionally you need idiot repellents, ‘thick-skin’ lotions, In Control (IC) hairspray and Let-it-go deodorant.
10. Once in a while, someone from your race or outside of it will stare at you because you are different. (Let’s say the word a lot of people liked as teenagers: “unique”.) You stand out even when you don’t want to. It could be your skin, hair, eyes, lips, hips, butt (or lack of it), height, legs, nails, clothes, speech and the aura of your confidence or eerie silence.
11.I know I’m guilty of clicking away online surveys for personality tests at least once or twice. Usually, people say ” Yes, that’s me!” But sometimes in life you gotta step out of that box in which you’ve put yourself to deal with complicated situations (or people) or furthermore to progress in life. Who says that you have to act one way all the time? Surprise yourself!
12. You may not think you are getting old but the signs are there — emotionally, hormonally, financially, educationally or simply the fact that you see a child with a chunk of technology that you don’t know how to use. WARNING: We may think of ourselves as healthy horses and tend to forget to nourish our bodies with vitamins so that our bodies can keep up with us.
13. Traveling and meeting people contributes to an awesome world phenomenon. I marvel at the fact that within seven of your friends, one of them may know someone in the group of another seven. It’s cool that I know an American who knows a Colombian who is a friend of my friend in China.