Well, folks, here it is, the rest of the article. If you enjoyed the last few tips and tricks I've learned over the years, read on. If you missed that article, read this first.
1. Music is magic.
A good song has often been enough to get me up in the morning. Music can inspire me to try again or speak up or just chill out. When I'm down and need a reminder or an escape, music provides generously. It lessens my human suffering and if that's not magic, I don't know what is.
2. Bodies are for so much more than looking good.
I'm not sure why I or anyone else spends so much time trying to look good. It makes me happy, looking pretty or cool, but human bodies are worth so much more than that. They're for running, jumping, learning, playing, talking, solving things, creating things, loving things. There's so much potential and yet so much of the time I'm absorbed with just the one aspect. It's a damned shame and I plan to do something about it.
3. Love yourself.
First and foremost, one should love themselves. Deeply and passionately. I long to believe so deeply in my potential and beliefs that I'm willing to die for what I think is right. When you can look at yourself and feel such strong admiration and love, it won't matter what anyone thinks of you or what you do. And that is freedom.
4. I could always be wrong.
There are so many possibilities in this vast and changing world. We could be living in a dream, aliens might exist, and most certainly, I could be wrong. Realizing this is an important part of being a functional human being. There's nothing wrong with wrongness, so long as you can accept it.
5. Trying new things is worth it.
Classics are nice, but trying new things is worth it, if only to narrow down what you love or find new things to add to that list. Thanks to trying new things, I now know that I like grapefruit Izze's more than blackberry ones, and given the choice between frog and alligator meat, I'd take frog.
6. There's no place like home.
Whether it's my childhood home, my parents' arms, my friends' faces or my grandmother's voice on the other end of the phone, nothing beats home. Home is where I feel safe, and whether that's a place or a person or a thing I love, after all the adventures wind down, nothing beats that sweetness.
7. Generalizations are merely convenient.
All black people don't like basketball, all girls don't like pink, all white people don't have a weird inability to dance. While there are circumstances where the above statements are true, it is simply idiotic to believe that with 7 billion individual people on the planet, everyone fits these narrow margins.
8. There's more than mushy gushy romantic love.
I've spent so much time agonizing over my lack of a love life, all the while neglecting the one I have all around me. A mother who adores me, a grandmother who listens, friends who laugh with me and a world full of possibilities. There's more to life than romantic love, there's plain old love.
9. It's beautiful to miss things.
When I cry about things and people that are gone or far away, a small part of me rejoices. To miss something so much that you cry is beautiful because those tears mean that you love that something very much. That kind of love doesn't come every day, so I'm proud and grateful for the opportunity to love deeply.
I thank the powers that be for the last 19 years and all the things I've been able to learn in them. With any luck, I'll soon be looking back on 19 more.
