19 Things I’ve Learned In 19 Beautifully Disastrous Years

1. You’re only as good as the people you allow to breathe the air around you.

The people you surround yourself with will always bring out either the best or the worst in you. That’s what you get to decide.

2. The seasons will bring you back to a time you miss. That’s okay.

Winter was the time of school closings and delays, fall puts me right back in an apple orchard, spring is the time capsule back to family outings to the greenhouse, and summer is the endless time with friends. You may miss these times, and that’s okay. No one asked you to forget them.

3. Don’t be in such a hurry to run away from home.

College feels nothing like home. I know you’re tired of the same old life and the same old town, but soon, you’ll miss not knowing your way around. You’ll miss home.

4. No one takes you as seriously as yourself. Stop.

You are the only one standing in your way.

5. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.

The only thing I know how to do well is write, and it’s taken 19 years to get here.

6. Find your flow & row, row, row.

It’s the simplest thing, but the most important to remember. When the day is long and the night is longer, find your flow & row, row, row.

7. Your job won’t take care of you when you’re sick. The people you love will.

I have been, and am still, a horrible workaholic. I can’t help but bring the worst of my job home with me. This is something that I’m still learning, and that’s the greatest lesson of all.

8. Believe in miracles & love as freely and as openly as a child.

You have all the time in the world to be an adult. Don’t let go of the things that keep you young.

9. Burn candles.

Nothing calms your storm better.

10. What doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

The greatest lesson of all.

11. Don’t let your mental illness be your excuse.

Use it as your way of overcoming. You are bigger than any label. You are you, and your anxiety is just a piece.

12. All that truly matters, in the end, is that you loved.

People aren’t going to remember what you have them. People are going to remember how you treated them.

13. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, show up.

Always.

14. Teach someone all you know. That knowledge was never yours, to begin with.

Leave this world knowing that you gave all you had to someone else.

15. Be as good as your mom.

My mom is the mark for me. She’s what I aspire to be every moment of my life. I could only hope to be half as strong as she is one day.

16. Don’t question who you are.

The world may try to sway you, but deep down, you know who you are. No one can change that.

17. If you only get one thing done every day, let it be that you made your bed.

You’ll feel so much better.

18. Read every single day.

Make it a priority, and realize how good it feels to be in another universe for a while.

19. Don’t let the world tell you who you are, you tell the world.

Scream it loud.