Every new year, I love making lists of things that I learned. I've been doing it for over five years now, and I love looking back and things I learned from years ago and seeing how far I've come in my journey of life. Here are ten of the many things I've learned this school year, that maybe some of you can learn, too.
1. Talk about your feelings
I've always had issues talking about my feelings with other people, but this year was the year, I was really more expressive about how I was feeling about certain things. Whether it's expressive disappointment in someone or talking about my own personal failure, talking definitely helps relieve stress and tension.
2. Not everyone you meet is going to be as genuine as you are
This was something that was SO hard for me to understand, especially this semester. I always have good intentions when I'm with other people. But it took me a while to realize that not everyone is like this; some people do have malicious intentions, whether they are aware of it or not. My best advice is to just steer clear of these kinds of people (see #3).
3. Take note of how you feel when you're with certain people. This is an indication of whether they should stay in your life or not
I realize that friend groups are what make the world go around. I have many friend groups — friends from high school, friends from college, friends from organizations in college, etc. But certain friend groups really just aren't worth the time. I realized that energy is so important. If you feel a certain way around a certain group of people, and the energy feels off, you're not obligated to stay with that group. There are millions of people out there. Be friends with people who make you feel amazing in all aspects of your life.
4. Friendships are hard to make but easy to fall apart
Going off #2 and #3, this one is also so important to realize. I found that the friendships that were a struggle in the beginnings are always the ones that work out to be long-lasting. However, the ones that were easy (and superficial, to be honest), didn't last long at all. REAL friendships are extremely hard to maintain and they're very hard to start, but at least you'll know that they'll be in your life for a very, very long time.
5. There's always time to do what you need to do
IF YOU EVER SAY THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TIME TO DO SOMETHING, YOU'RE LYING. HONESTLY!!! There were so many times during this semester, I was like, "Wow, I wish there were more hours in the day so I could do X, Y, and Z." But honestly, there WERE enough hours in the day, I just wasn't being productive. And I do admit, there are days, where you don't want to be productive and you just want to lay in bed with Netflix, and that's OK. But just know that there's always time to do the things that are needed of you.
6. Making your dreams into reality takes initiative
So many people think that they can be successful in life by being passive. I know for a fact that this is 100% WRONG. If you're idling through life, you're not LIVING. You're just passively going through the motions. This semester, I learned that if I wanted to make my dreams a reality, I needed to take that first step. I'm really happy with how this semester turned out for me, but it only was because I took initiative and make a move on my future.
7. Sometimes coincidences happen. Sometimes they don't mean anything. Sometimes, they mean everything
THIS ONE. OKAY! I used to be a firm believer that all coincidences mean EVERYTHING. If something slightly coincidental happened, I would immediately wonder, "What does this mean?" But I learned that some coincidences don't mean anything. They're literally just events of "chance." But some mean absolutely everything. For example, I met someone this semester and I'm SO happy that I'm able to call her one of my close friends (Sajayah, I love you), and there were so many coincidences that happened to us, it was crazy! It's coincidences with her that I know means that we were definitely meant to be good friends.
8. Your values before will never be the same as your values now
I just realized this one last night when I was with all of my friends at the end of the semester. I hadn't talked to them in such a long time because I had been so busy with school, and it occurred to me how much I've changed within so little time. I don't do a lot of the things I used to do before, which shows amazing personal growth in myself.
9. Speak up about what you believe in
This was also provoked by the events of the other night with all of my friends. I learned this semester that you shouldn't be silent about the things you know you want to talk about. This also goes along with the "Talk About Your Feelings" one. There's no use in being passive about things that are detrimental to our communities and societies. And people may think that you're overreacting for speaking up, or they may think that you're "radical," but let them think that. Speak up regardless, because one day it's actually going to make a huge impact on your environment and others around you.
10. You learn at both your peaks and valleys
All too often, we think that we only learn about ourselves when we're at our lowest. But I've realized that we also do when we're at our successful points. We learn how to be even more successful, we learn how to share this success with others, and we learn what to do just in case we slip into failure again. It's such a beautiful thing to know that throughout our lives, we'll always be learning and experiencing and becoming better people.