1."You Will Miss Your Brothers."

I will not admit this out loud, so don't even bother confronting me about it. Up until maybe 6 months ago, my brothers were repulsive, weird creatures that were always tied together in a twin tangle. Up until 6 months ago. Lately (read: since I've been gone.), they've both developed their own personalities, and it's much easier to see them as humans with their own thoughts and opinions rather than just my annoying kid brothers. I do miss them. I miss the signature eye rolls, and snarky dry humor. I feel like I'm missing out.

2."You Need To Talk To People, Don't Expect Them to Talk to You."

I struggle with this one daily. I suffer from a minor disability that consists of a monsters named Anxiety constantly piggy-backing through my life with me. Whenever I consider doing anything remotely bold, or outgoing, or even normal, by most people's standards, Anxiety reaches up and begins to choke me. I know this is something I need to work on, because my mother was right, people are not going to (and do not) seek out the girl who looks lonely. They are going to live their lives. Because they can comfortably talk to people.

3."You'll Learn to Keep Your Room Clean in College."

To be fair, I don't even think she believed this one when she said it. I was the queen of the many mountains of dirty laundry that constantly plagued the floor of my bedroom. Some lucky clothes ended in the clothes hamper, but many were simply disregarded on the floor after they were deemed 'unacceptable' for my outfit of the day. Since I've been here, I will admit there is still the occasional textbook or dirty sock that clutters my floor, but oh my, has the mess improved. Ta da, I pleasantly surprised everyone.

4."It is What it is."

I'm pretty sure this was my mother's mantra throughout my child hood. Whether it was a dreaded B on a report card in middle school (I would later be thankful to get a B in high school), or a glass of spilled milk that I pouted about for 20 minutes. Any rotten thing that happened could be guaranteed an answer of "It is what it is" from Mom. I've found that she is, surprisingly, very right about this one. While I may be beginning to use it as a bad excuse (I forgot to take a quiz earlier this week, "It is what it is"!), I know that it was well intentioned, and that it will always be the first phrase to pop into my mind after a (most likely minor) catastrophe.

5."Mommy's know everything."

Every time sassy seven year old me was proven wrong by my mother, she would inevitably take my face in her hands, forming it into a perfect 'o' resembling a fish mouth, and say "Mommy's know everything, Rebekah." While the frequency with which I have heard this phrase lessened as I got older, every once in a while it still strikes my ears after I am embarrassingly proven wrong. I still don't fully believe in this one. Would I even be a daughter if i did? So far, my theory that this statement is incorrect has not been proven, but I'm not so sure that I want it to be.