ometimes I get a wee bit sentimental around these parts. It usually happens when I’m pre-menstrual or I miss another of my nieces birthdays and both of those things are happening this week so I’m handing you an emotion sandwich today. One of my favourite Facebook pages is Human’s of New York because every day I get to meet an awesome new person and get some killer life advice from very wise people. I thought I’d take advantage of my usually nostalgic state this week and knock together a little list of the 5 things I know about life…
1. The world doesn’t give a shit about you
It’s really harsh but it’s totally true. Some people have it far worse than others and some people have it far, far worse than others but it doesn’t matter. The world, on the whole has no interest at all in what you’re doing. It seems like a negative thought, but I find it so freeing. Like if I have a bad day and I feel like a giant bag of garbage, I just remind myself that no one else cares and it makes me care a lot less and focus on better stuff. It’s also an excellent reminder to not sit around and wait for the world to hand you an amazing life. You have to seek it out yourself.
2. Little happy moments are golden
When I look back on my life the things that make me feel all warm fuzzy are teeny tiny moments. Lying in the sun in New Zealand in a camper van with Mr Smaggle on our first holiday away together and feeling the most peace I’d ever felt in my life at that point. Gathering my cousins every Christmas to crowd around my sleeping grandfather to take the annual Poppy Is Asleep And Everyone Else Is Awake photo. Every single time I’ve been asked to be a bridesmaid. Watching hours of Judge Judy with my dad. Drinking all the wine with my mum. Every thing my niece has ever done, ever. I can’t recall the feelings I’ve felt when big exciting things happen but these little snippets sometimes pop into my mind and they’re just delightful. It also reminds me to remember beautiful moments when I’m in them now.
3. Dicks are dicks
You really, actually can’t change people. I’m pretty lucky and I learned this early on but it pains me to see so many people persevering with awful relationships and friendships with people who are just objectively and consistently unpleasant. No one is perfect all the time and sometimes people accidentally hurt you or go through rough times and that’s totally fine. However some people are dicks and as far as I’m concerned they can be dicks very, very far away from me.
4. If you want people to pay you to do stuff you have to do it well
I’ve only been fired once in my life but it totally wounded me. I was teaching little kids fitness classes at the YMCA. I was a teenager, incredibly inexperienced and totally unqualified to deal with a room full of screaming two year olds. I was heartbroken and thought I was really hard done by but my business owner parents explained to me that employees don’t have the time and money to hang around and pay you to be bad at something until you (hopefully) get good at it. You have to deliver first. It’s always stayed with me and it’s made me a bloody good employee. Even if I’m doing a job I don’t love, I do it well because someone is paying me to do it and if I don’t give them a decent return on their investment, they’ll invest elsewhere.
5. Love is, actually, everywhere
Despite the drippy sentiment smeared all over this post, I’m not actually a very touchy, feely kind of person. I like to bury my feelings deep inside where no one will ever find them and I cry like once every three years if that. I’m a little bit dead inside. However as time passes, I’m getting better at letting love happen and not ignoring it. I say ‘I love you.’ all the time to people I love now – my friends, my family – because you don’t actually have that much time to tell people that. I say it several times a day and it’s really rather lovely.
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What do you know about life? Care to share a few truths?
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