24 Things

Last week I turned 24!

Growing up is still very weird to me. 23 to 24 is such a massive jump! I've learned a lot about myself this year. More so than any other years. I learned a lot about a lot of things. People, friends, life. I also did a heavy load of camping trips and road trips this past year. It's been a lot of fun. 

Here are 24 things I learned, did, experienced and realized this past year that are worth blogging about.

1. Friends are not forever. You lose some, you gain some. Life goes on.

2. Partying and drinking alcohol all the time is fun, but it gets old and it gets old fast. You can't do it forever. There comes a certain age where you just have to grow up and stop doing these things...err so you don't get a huge beer belly.

3. It's okay to graduate college and not know what you want to do in life. Your friends and peers may know and that's great. But don't feel sorry for yourself because you haven't found what to call yours yet.

4. Long solo road trips are sooo good for your soul. I recommend it to everyone. I took my first solo road trip to Big Sur back in March and camped all by my lonesome. It was quite the enlightening experience.

5. Do not ever be afraid to be yourself. Whether it is around your friends, your crush, your family; be true to yourself. The ones that matter will love you for you and accept you for you. And that's the people that matter. 

6. Take risks and a lot of them. Going back to Big Sur...I rented a car and drove off into the night at midnight. I was really afraid my camping neighbors would either rape or murder me, but I came out alive. (Nature people are the best!) It was a huge risk. I didn't tell my parents where I was going and also may have said I was going with 3 other people! It was a great learning experience that I would not trade for anything.

7. Nature people are the best. I camped a lot this past year and I've learned so much about random little things. People who camp and love the outdoors and love animals, those are the people I vibe with the most. 

8. I guess this is similar to 5 & 6...be honest with yourself. It's so easy to be influenced these days but stay true to what you believe in and especially stay true to your feelings. Always be honest with yourself and your feelings, your friends, family, everything. You'll feel 10X better.

9. Passive aggressive gets you nowhere. Something you don't like? Let your voice be heard instead of complaining about something and not moving forward with the situation. 

10. I really need to learn how to cook. I kinda moved out of my parents house this year and I learned that I heavily rely on going back to my parents' for food. 

11. Learn to be comfortable with being alone. This became more prominent this year. I have always loved doing things alone and enjoying my own company. But while I was going to school, coming home to a dark house and having no one to talk about my day with, really sucked. It was depressingly lonely. I guess this was a newfound loneliness I was experiencing.

12. Buy things you actually need and not want. You'll save so much money.

13. Family time is very important.

14. Animals are the greatest things in the entire world. I hope to go to Indonesia sometime and meet some orangutans and get involved with an organization to support and save these beautiful creatures.

15. I'll admit it, I'm still deathly afraid of the dark. Just the other night my friends and I drove out to Joshua Tree for the Perseid Meteor Shower. We slept in our sleeping bags on a dirt path in some random cutout somewhere off the road...I was terrified the entire time and found myself sound asleep when the sun rose.

16. I mustered up all the courage within me to finally tell the guy I like my feelings and it wasn't the worst thing in the world.

17. Sober karaoke can be fun too. 

18. This one is very important to me. YOU have control over YOU. Don't let others control what will happen to you. You make the move, be bold and be strong. You have power, courage and motives to make things happen, so go out and make them happen.

19. Choose your friends wisely. The older I get, I've come to realize that I value all the special connections and friendships I've made and I really make that apparent. I told a friend the other day that I have a "would I invite them to my wedding?" list. That is, is this a friend or an acquaintance? Do I want to spend my time with you? How big of a difference have you made in my life? This may sound cruel, but that's life. I've made hundreds of friends in high school and college but I keep a pretty tight circle maybe I've also decided I'd like a more smaller, quaint and intimate wedding. Hehe.

20. If you read a text or an email or anything on social media that really caused you to feel upset or angry, take about 10 minutes to collect your thoughts before saying something you'll regret or something you don't mean. 

21. Say thank you to everyone. Say thank you to everyone you appreciate in your life.

22. I've become horrible at keeping in touch with people and I've been trying new things to change that.

23. I'm doing my best to keep my word. If I let a friend know that we should do something like grab coffee at this new place or try this new restaurant, I will always go out of my way to keep my word and do so, and not just say we'll hang out to please someone. 

24. Since moving out of my parents earlier this year and having finally graduated, I find myself spending a lot of time back at my parents' house this summer. I usually have a full packed duffel of clothes, my toiletries, my laptop, my giant transport tote from Madewell, a small purse for going out and my craft set. Oh, and all my camping materials are in the trunk of my car. I realized I only need a few things in life and that I still have so much junk in my old room, in my current room and I don't need any of that.

xoxo