13 lessons.

This is just a quick post to ring in the new year.

BRRRRRRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING

Just a tacky joke to taint this New Year's and we still have quite a few hours. I'm sorry my humor is just going farther and farther down the tubes lately.

So I was thinking, since I am a rather good list-maker, I will make a list. But the thing is, I have made so many lists on this blog that I can't do anything cliche'. So here's one that I hope isn't ridiculously unoriginal, and enjoy it like the fact it's still socially acceptable to overeat EVERYTHING.

This is a list of lessons I've learned in 2013.

1. You're never alone, even though you may feel that way. This year was a year. With my grandmother dying, my life altering (in a good way) in a single parent household, and moving across the Atlantic Ocean for 10 months, I've gained a lot of independence. The independence to make my own decisions, the independence to follow my heart and dreams, the independence to be self sufficient and tend to my own needs... but this independence also comes with the independence of handling your problems alone. The independence of being lost. The independence of misunderstanding, language barriers, isolation, and fears. The first 2 weeks of exchange were the loneliest and hardest days of my life. No way to access my friends or family. No one that understood or even knew exactly how I was feeling. Literally I only had one way to run. I was on an island, and I honestly was alone. But, the other kids in my chapter could easily tell I was unhappy (I'm talking to you, Marie) and helped me so much in choosing to leave and fix my abroad life. Within 2 days, I was the happiest little clam on the planet. No matter where you are, what you are struggling with, and how much you honestly think you're alone, you aren't. You're just not looking hard enough.
2. When you hit your lowest point, the only way you can go is up. It's almost common sense but it's a given fact that when we think we are at our lowest, we focus on the fact that that's where we are, and not that the only possible way it can change is by getting better. Food for thought.
3. Nothing has to be broke in order for you to fix it.  If something can be better, take it upon yourself to fix it. If it works, nothing will be handed to you on a platter to make it better. The saying 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' is total bull. There's always room for improvement. My life wasn't broke, it just wasn't moving anywhere as fast as I'd have liked it. So, I fixed it. 
4. The world is as good as you make it. If you whine 24/7, you will be miserable. And vice versa. I don't have much to say because I already have preached on here numerous times about it.
5.  Forgiving isn't equal to forgetting. I am the type of person to hold grudges, and as much as I know it isn't a good thing to do, I do it anyways. Hell, I think I may have some grudges from elementary school. I don't know why I keep a hold of these things for so long. So, one of my new years resolutions (ugh blargle blargle resolutions ew) is to be more forgiving. Not necessarily meaning I will forget the things, but to make peace with them.
6. Realizing that you are wrong is more important than being right. You may be the smartest, most important person on this planet, but if you screw something up and the only way you try and fix it is by shifting blames and making it worse than it should be by trying to make yourself right, it isn't worth it. It's cowardly. It's stupid. And most of all, it's wrong.
7. Love is patient....Love is kind...it does not boast.... Love is one of the few things in life that I agree with for the fact that you have to wait for it to happen yourself. Love one another, and not by having a dependence on them. Basically, if you aren't living to make the other person happy, you aren't supposed to be with them. Blah blah blah sappy love story. 
8. The world is huge, but distance is little. Even though I was slapped in the face of how detailed and indescribably unique every little part of the world is, distance will forever and always mean next to nothing. Not being able to see your family, live in a style 100% comfortable, sleep in your own bed, etc. does suck. But you're able to return to that. The world is a big place, and your home will always be home. But don't let the fact that the world is big scare you from exploring it. Distance is smaller than it seems. Technically, it's only a metaphorically small world, Disney. 
9.  Someone always is in a worse situation than you. Short and sweet, this one. Just look where you are, and be thankful!
10.  Keep calm and carry on. Sometimes, if you let your life play out like it naturally would, it's for the better. You become more relaxed, you become more free-spirited, and life just becomes better.
11.  Underneath all the languages, all the culture differences, and all the diversities, we are all human. Even though we are in fact, a part of the animal kingdom and are part of all that food chain stuff, we aren't like any other animals. We are the most complex species to ever walk the face of this earth. Around the world we are so different in the way we live, our diets, our morals, literally everything that separates us from being a monkey. But underneath all of that stuff is a wonderful thing. We are all human. We all fail, make mistakes, have to learn, have to make friends, we fall in love, we have our hearts broken, we get homesick, we lose the ones we love, we break, we repair, we grow, we live. Mahatma Gandhi was the same species as Adolf Hitler. Eli Manning is the same species as Marilyn Monroe. Justin Bieber is the same species as George Washington. You are the same species as all of those people you read about in the books for all of those years in school, anyone you've ever seen in a movie, and every single person you've ever seen in your whole entire life. When you strip it completely to the minimum, we are all the same. We are born, we live, we die. Our skeletons are all equal. We are human. 
12. Don't waste time.  Because......YOLO. 
13. And last but not least....

"It doesn't matter if it's heads or tails, you're still a penny richer."

-Trouble, my elder buddy in Nashville for the last day of our missions trip.

It doesn't matter if an experience kills you or builds you up. It doesn't matter if you win or lose. It doesn't matter if you fail or succeed. All that matters is the experience you gain from it. This literally applies to so much of my life in the past year that I can't even put into words how much it sums up my year into 1 sentence. Thank you, Trouble. When you told me that, on that long stroll in the hot June sun, pointing to that penny, forcing me to pick it up, I kind of took it up as a joke. But, as I sit on my bed 13,000 kilometers away from everything that raised me, and I look back on it, I can't thank you enough. And that's why, I brought it with me. 

That, my friends, is a dirty, old penny from 1999 that is probably next to worthless to any of you, but means almost the world to me.

I nearly ran out of time for this one, but it's still pretty early in America so I guess that doesn't matter to you lot! Sorry Australia, New Zealand, and the eastern seaboard of Asia. I missed ya. I hope you all have a great new year, I can't believe one of the most eventful years of my life is already coming to a close. So, for 2013, ciao ragazzi. Ci vediamo dopo.