22 Things I Learned Before 23

It is nearing the end of the year, but most importantly it’s my birthday. Another trip around the sun, another year older and another year wiser, maybe.
 
You know what you see a lot of towards the end of the year? Lists!
So here’s another one for you; 22 things I learned before 23.

1. Everything always works out. It may not be in the way that you expected, but it always does.
2. You need to engrave patience and positivity into your personality.
3. Boys are dumb, men are not (sometimes). Know the difference.
4.  Girls will always be crazy, psycho, and mean.
5. The past is the past. It happened. It’s no longer happening. Don’t let it happen again. Move on from it.
6. Don’t waste alcohol dumping drinks on people.
7. When no one else is there for you, your family will be.
8. You find true friends in the unlikeliest of people.
9. There is a God but it’s okay if you don’t feel him at the Catholic church you’ve been forced to go to for your entire life. He is in other things like nature, the person who tweets at you that tomorrow will be better, the cop who doesn’t give you a ticket even though you were going 50 in a 35. Where you let Him in your life is totally up to you.
10. Be honest about everything. Even if the other person doesn’t want to hear it, they need to hear it.
11. There is no better feeling than buying your first plane ticket out of the country with your own money that you’ve been earning from your full time job.
12. Get a college degree, because that’s the one thing that no one can ever take away from you and will ensure your future successes.
13. Having a full time job is amazing, but it also sucks. Get a hobby. Netflix is not a hobby.
14. Go outside and look around more.
15. Listen to listen. Don’t listen to respond.
16. People make mistakes. Its okay to forgive them and forget, but don’t let them make the same mistake again.
17. Don’t wish your life away. You will miss where you once were and the things you used to have, even if you say that you won’t.
18. Be spontaneous. Some of the best things happen unplanned.
19. If somebody asks you to do something; go to a ball game, get dinner and see a movie after work, go to the art museum, paint and drink wine, etc. Do it.
20. Don’t make commitments, make a plan, and then be flaky and bail. Do the things you say you will.
21. You can’t just sit around and wait for the next best thing to come around. Make the best of what you have.
22. Even if a million bad things happen in a row, something good is always right around the corner. Don’t give up. 

22 was not great to me, if I'm being honest. It was miserable and sometimes also magical, just like that Taylor Swift song said it would be. I started my 22nd year sleeping in tunnels during a 10 hour layover in the Houston airport, so I guess that should’ve been a red flag. But I ended it with the best family and friends a girl could have. So, in the end, I guess it wasn't all bad.

It wasn’t a glamorous year but it was a learning year. Here’s to 23. 

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