BBAIRD!

1. Do not be afraid to feel. Be soft, be gentle, be a roaring hurricane if that’s what your heart is telling you. You are an intricate creature of emotion. Do not still your flames.
2. Set your alarm 5 minutes early. Give yourself 5 minutes to lay there in resilience. Then get up and go.
3. Do not forget the importance of those who ask you how you are. Who ask you how your day was. Notice those who check in on you. The world can be a dark place, surround yourself with those who care.
4. You may not look like that girl in the photo, or the girl you just walked past in the street. But that does not make you any less beautiful. You are simply a different kind of flower.
5. Do not be ashamed of your interests and your passions, the music you like, the books you read, what you enjoy doing on a Sunday. Be proud of the light in your eyes when you speak about it.
6. Understand the difference between good and bad attention. There are those that see you simply for what you offer on the outside, but there are also those who are fascinated by the miracles you offer on the inside too.
7. Don’t take yourself too seriously. You are only human. Forgive yourself when you need to and laugh at yourself often.
8. Despite how it may seem now, your family will not be around forever. Make the effort while you can. These people are your blood, your life source, your first friends.
9. Never stop learning. This world is full of wonder. Be curious about what it holds, the nature, the history, the people. There will always be something new.
10. Make good stories. The present is the youngest you’ll ever be again. There will come a day where you look back upon your life, and memories will be all you have left. Go make some.

1. It will get better. I promise all these problems will be stories one day and you’ll laugh at them thinking how silly you were.
2. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. If their laugh isn’t music to your ears or you don’t see the whole world in their eyes, don’t promise to love them forever.
3. Your grades don’t define you. The test you almost failed won’t matter in 10 years, what will matter is how good of a person you are.
4. However, don’t ignore your education. Education is one of the most powerful weapons you can ever have. Read as many books as you can and never ever stop learning.
5. Listen to your mother, I promise whatever she advises you is probably the best for you. No one truly wants the absolute best for you as much as your mother.
6. Never ever comment on anyone’s appearance, if they can’t fix it in 5 minutes. Criticisms stick and they will see that there’s something wrong with them everytime they look in the mirror, even if it for a split second.
7. Compliment people as much as you can, kindness goes a long way in such a cruel world.
8. Never ever forget where you came from no matter how high you reach, be as humble as you can, because you can lose everything in a second and you won’t have anywhere to go except back home.
9. If they want to leave for no reason, hold the door open for them. If they think you don’t deserve an explanation for why they’re leaving, then they don’t deserve a second of your time.
10. Love yourself, love yourself, love yourself. I can’t stress this enough, it is a long process, but every time you see a flaw in yourself, learn to love it, then watch yourself slowly change it.

And when you choose a life partner, you’re choosing a lot of things, including your parenting partner and someone who will deeply influence your children, your eating companion for about 20,000 meals, your travel companion for about 100 vacations, your primary leisure time and retirement friend, your career therapist, and someone whose day you’ll hear about 18,000 times.

In the end there doesn’t have to be anyone who understands you. There just has to be someone who wants to.

I think I realized why I love the ocean so much. Although sometimes it’s calm, there are times where waves are crashing into each other and it’s all a mess… yet people still think those moments are just as beautiful as when it’s still. I want someone to love me when I’m a mess and I’m crashing into myself, not just when everything is going the way it should. I want someone to love me like the ocean.

You are a language I am no longer fluent in
but still remember how to read.

Fall in love with someone who’s comfortable with your silence. Find someone who doesn’t need your words to know it’s time to kiss you.

Do I put my arm around you like this? Do we spend every night together? Do we move in after two years? What are the rules? You have to teach me. I’m a spring chicken. When everyone else was getting into relationships and learning how to be a great partner, I was working or laying in bed or running away from the possibility of meeting someone because I was scared, because I wouldn’t sacrifice anything, because the concept of sharing my day-to-day life with someone else left me trembling, even though it’s what I wanted.

The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.