25 Valuable Things I Learned By 25

1. We are the sum of our actions, our thoughts, our yeses and our nos. Someone once said, we are what we repeatedly do. So true.

2. Say yes to dessert. Unless you’ve already had dessert like three times that day.

3. Never use your phone while getting on a train at a Tube station, unless you want to be the girl that caused a 2-minute train delay on the Bakerloo line one fine Sunday night. After all, they did say to mind the gap!

4. No one can make you feel bad without your permission. That includes yourself.

5. Measure impact, not action. It’s about excellence, not perfection.

6. Pick up the phone. Our generation has this thing about not actually wanting to talk to each other.

7. Bookshelves make for an amazing 21st birthday present.

8. It’s totally ok to walk around a strange new city without a data plan. The internets will be right there when you get back.

9. Eating something that you don’t particularly like, e.g. cucumber or tofu, on rare occasions, makes you appreciate everything else a bit more.

10. Be friends with ambiguity, but know where your limits lie.

11. Diet Coke is never the answer. Generally speaking, a four-shot Starbucks espresso concoction probably isn’t the answer either.

12. Always, always, always, err on the side of kindness. Who knows what the other person is fighting on the inside?

13. Want to know how people really live? Visit a supermarket or market.

14. Being lukewarm about something never helped anybody.

15. If you’re lost, don’t be in such a rush to find whatever it is you’re looking for, if you happen to know what it is. Sometimes, getting lost is part of the process.

16. When in doubt, smile, especially if your default facial configuration isn’t particularly cheerful in nature. Easier said than done sometimes, but it does help.

17. You know you probably should have stopped after the second margarita thingy if you suddenly start speaking fluent German.

18. Alone time is important. Actually enjoying alone time, even more so.

19. Postcards are one of life’s greatest little joys.

20. Take the time to be silent. Wait that extra heartbeat or two. It encourages the other person to open up.

21. There’s a silver lining to every situation, even if you just happened to fall into someone’s lap in a moving train. Although he wasn’t very cute, it’s practice for the real thing! No? 😛

22. When your body completely freezes in time and you feel as if the grey clouds are threatening to take over, stop trying to fight and just tune in to your breathing. In. Out. In. Out. It gets better. It always does.

23. Look people in the eye.

24. We exist to build each other up, not tear each other down. The easy way out is to say and do whatever you feel like, but even if it does happen to be difficult, it’s so much more fulfilling to encourage one another instead.

25. You don’t really need five similarly shaped navy dresses, or seven different kinds of black eyeliner.