25ish Things I Have Learned In 25 Years

A lot has happened in my twenty-five years of life. A lot of sadness and a lot of happiness. Mistakes have been made. Lessons have been learned. To be honest, a lot of lessons have been discovered in the past year or so.

There will never be a time where you know everything. Even on a topic, you claim to be an expert on. New things are being discovered and/or refined all of the time.

When learning new things, mistakes are going to happen. There are going to be times where you don’t know the answer and will need to ask questions. That is okay. Not knowing something or making a mistake is impossible to avoid. And it happens to everyone.

You are not the only one dealing with what you are dealing with. Life happens differently to each person but others have felt and dealt with very similar things as you. If someone is hurting you on a deep factor, chances are that person is doing the same thing to others. Speak up. Don’t stay quiet just because you think you are the only one it’s happening to.

You don’t have to share every detail of something with everyone, especially when it is extremely personal. It’s okay for close people to know most or all of the details, but acquaintances don’t have to. Even though I share way more personal details about my life than most, I still keep a lot to myself.

You will never be able to make everyone happy.

Be yourself. As scary as that may be. Even when you are faking parts of yourself to make people happy, you are still not making people happy. Why not be yourself in the process? Which being yourself is a process in itself.

You will most likely lose people along the way/ have relationships shift. That will be painful, but you will find people who love you for you. Those people in a way make the pain and hurt worth it.

Some relationships aren’t going to look like you want them to. You will have to shift how you see them. How that happens will look different for each relationship/ person. Sometimes you have to take a step away from relationships or take yourself out of the equation completely.

Some of the decisions that are the best for your well-being aren’t always going to be easy. Most likely they will be some of the hardest decisions you will make. They can also be some of the most rewarding.

Some of the decisions that seem life-changing aren’t that life-changing. Your thoughts are 10x worse than what’s going on outside of your head.

Eat the food.

Your body is going to change. I can’t speak for men, but for women, your body can change in a matter of an hour. Be gentle with your thoughts towards your body. Listen to what your body is telling you. There is no “perfect” body.

Eating healthy and working out can only do so much to how your body looks. Genes play a huge part in how your body looks. Because of your genes, you may never look like your ideal body. No matter how little you eat or how much you work out.

Buy clothes that fit you. I gained a couple of sizes this past year, as many people did (which is okay). So many of my favorite clothes are too small. I get sad and start to hate my body when I try to put clothes on that are too small. I bought some cute clothes that were my current size and the difference it made me feel was night and day. I didn’t come home from work hating my body.

Then again, size doesn’t mean anything. Especially when you’re are a girl and you can “fit” into several different sizes in women’s clothes. Women’s sizes are messed up and never consistent. This is a reason why having the mindset or goal to be healthy is better than having the goal of being “skinny.”

Most importantly, you are worthy.