26 Years Old!

Today is my 26th birthday! Woo hoo! I'm a big fan of birthdays. They remind us that we have made it to another year and are hopefully smarter and stronger because of it. Who doesn't love a day where you get lots of sweet phone calls, text messages, presents and just generally a wonderful day?! I'm very lucky so today I was blessed with all of those things!

I sent the following to my sister for her blog to Lucas the other day and I think it sums up what I've learned in these 26 years.

1. Cherish your relationships. I don’t care if it’s with your mom or with a girl in high school that you fall in love with, cherish them. Don’t take them for granted and certainly tell people how you feel. Never assume they know. Take the time to understand these relationships and what makes each of them special.

2. Go to concerts and really enjoy them. I mean, get out of your seat and dance your butt off! That’s what concerts are for anyhow! Also, really take the time to listen to the lyrics in songs. They will help you get through a lot of things in your life. I don’t know where I would be without a lot of music out there.

3. Take pictures whenever you can. You will want these memories as your grow older. As you surely learn, I have lots of scrapbooks full of memories and I am grateful that I’ve started this hobby. I hope that you will be interested in photography too.

4. Keep in touch with your friends, at least, the ones that you care about. Even the friends that you haven’t seen in a few years, you never know when you’ll run into them again. You also never know when you’ll need to turn to one of these friends for something or other.

5. Do one thing that challenges you mentally and/or physically every year. It can be anything…. I am attempting to run a half marathon in September and that scares me to death but I know that if I train hard, I can do it. Just know that you can do anything you put your mind to.

6. I hope you find something in life that you are passionate about are able to pursue that. Focus on deciding what will motivate you to get out of bed in the morning. I really think that that is the key to true happiness. I just know that I need to work in the music industry for me to be truly happy in this life.

7. Don’t be a flake. I know too many people that say one thing but never get around to actually doing it and that drives me insane! Why is it so hard to stick to your word? Your mom is the opposite of a flake so I am sure that we don’t have to worry about you becoming one.

8. Worrying is pointless and doesn’t really help anyway. I worry way too much about everything and anything but it’s gotten much better the older I get. So, save yourself the trouble and time and just don’t get into the worrying habit at all.

9. Don’t obsess over what people think of you. I used to do this endlessly but just this year I have really come to an understanding that it really doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about you. As long as you are happy with who you are, then it’s all good.

10. My favorite quote of all time says it all, “the greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” I hope you love endlessly.