26 things I learned in my 26 years on earth.

This picture is from last year’s birthday. The person behind the camera caught so much emotion. My coworkers really made me feel appreciated last year. Turning 25 + 1 was amazing.

With my birthday being
less than a month away I’ve been thinking about all of the lessons learned,
hardships, and fun times up until now. I
feel like 26 things that I’ve learned is not even close to being enough but I’m
going to try to sum it all up. I’m going
to be extremely sarcastic, humorous, and serious, so I hope y’all can tell the difference if you’ve
been following me.

1. When your parents say “don’t
run stay close” on Halloween stay close.
When I was in Kindergarten I was scared poopless because I didn’t listen
to my parents. Michael Myers, Jason, and
I don’t get along to say the least and you’ll be traumatized for quite some
time. Actually you still don’t like
those two. The first time you saw them
in the movies after many years you were reminded of that scary day haha.

2. Don’t wear those Barney
rain boots on your first day at your new school. You forget you’re the youngest and a year is
a big difference back in those baby years.
Barney’s for babies at your new school.

3. Your first grade teacher (she
will also be your favorite) will stay your friend for many years. She will remember you even when you’re in
your early 20’s so keep in touch with her!
She will shape the beginning stages of your school years.

4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
will be cooler watching it through that little crack in the upstairs balcony
that looks down on the living room than when you’re actually allowed to watch
it. Your mom never knew you were watching
it until now if she’s reading this. Sorry
mommy, I’m a rebel what can I say?

5. Don’t put Sun-In in your
hair, just don’t. Actually don’t even
color your hair until at least high school because at 26 you haven’t seen your
natural hair color in 14 years.

6. Those really thin bangs
were SOOOO not a good look.

7. Get braces. Seriously. Why did you wait until your senior year of
high school? You could’ve parked a bus
in that gap!

8. You can still function and
be as normal as possible with a neurological condition. Do as much research about it as you can, the more you know about your health condition, the better.

9. The recession will hit the
year you graduate and all of those promises that the college made you will be
null and void. You won’t find a job BUT (there’s
always a but) you will take the leap and go back for your MBA. No one can take away your education so don’t
ever sell yourself short or think well I went to school for no reason. You didn’t do it for anyone else BUT
YOURSELF. Also, to the people who put
you down and said that you went to school for no reason and that they had
better jobs than you, just walk away and never look back. You want to surround yourself with positive
energy and people who will lift you up.

10. Getting engaged really
young was a bad idea but a good example of lessons learned. Next time around it’s getting done the right
way. The guy has to talk to my dad and
get his blessing first. I will not say yes
until that happens.

11. Making a serious move at
24 is scary and exciting. 1664 miles away from home, in Texas, alone, sucks
when you get home sick. So getting Lilly
was a brilliant idea because you get puggle snuggles! Oh well, Texas and I will see each other
again one day. One day I’ll have that
dream house with the wrap around porch, swinging couch/rocking chair, and a
mason jar filled with sweet tea in my hand on a nice summer night. One day.

12. Technology and social
media are a big part of our lives. I
remember the days when the computer had commands on it. Or even a time before MySpace and Facebook
was still for College Students!

13. The duck face was a bad judgment
call. Just smile in pictures. Please.
You’re embarrassing your 26 year old self.

14. Holding onto an ex and
hoping for them to change is a waste of time and years. There’s a reason why it didn’t work the first
3 times.

15. Don’t let it take losing a
friend to cancer to finally realize life is beautiful. I always say I don’t have any regrets in
life, but I guess the only one I regret is not seeing my friend more. He lost his battle to cancer two weeks after
we were celebrating my job offer. I miss
you.

16. Don’t ever say “I can’t.” You CAN and you WILL.

17. You deserve better. Don’t settle.
Seriously, just because you’re comfortable doesn’t mean it’s what you
deserve.

18. Work your ass off because
there IS a light at the end of the tunnel and it is so worth this hard work.

19. Don’t spend so much time
on social media when you’re not doing blogging related things.

20. Don’t stress so much about
what others think, it’s so exhausting.
Honestly, I love myself and the person I’ve become. All of the years of being made fun of I look
back on it now and think, wow these people really missed out on an awesome
friend.

21. Having a family from
another country rocks and ALWAYS be proud of that. NEVER let anyone make you feel so terrible
that you tell your parents you never want to speak Polish or talk about Poland again. They came here with $5 in their pockets for
you to have a better life. You will
crush them when you say those horrible things.
Always remember your roots.

22. LISTEN TO YOUR PARENTS,
especially your mom. She’s almost always
right.

23. There will never be
another SPICE GIRLS. Girl groups have
tried but there’s only one Spice Girls and they rocked my socks off.

24. Namaste.

25. Sushi is DELICIOUS.

26. I am strong. My struggles, hardships, and good times have
made me who I am today. I am fearless. If I would’ve said this two years ago I
probably would’ve laughed at myself and instead of thinking all of this is
happening for a reason I would say why me? Now I look back on it and think that if I could go back and do this all over again, I would. Everything that has happened up until this point was for a reason. I personally think it has made me a more humble person, and I just understand everyone more. I’m able to give advice from experience not just from theory. All of this is to prepare me for my bigger life decisions in the future. I hope to have a family and I hope to teach my future kids what my parents taught me and more.

Oh and a bonus number 27 is I know how to make a Super Nintendo game from the 90’s work! That is a skill my future kids will never have the pleasure of knowing.