Children are often viewed
as innocent and extremely naïve to the world around us. While this is mostly
true, there are a few things we could take from them and apply to our own lives
to make this scary adult world a little less scary.
1. A compliment is the best thing you can give
someone. I see my cousin, Grace, every single Sunday at church. No matter
what I look like, if I’m wearing my best fitting dress or if my hair looks like
I just rolled out of bed, she greets me with “you look pretty today”. Such
simple words yet it always touches my heart. Every day there is at least one
person in our life that is in desperate need of encouragement. So tell your
best friend that she is having a good hair day. Tell your dad how much you
appreciate him for working so hard to provide for the family. Tell the girl in the dressing room
that she should buy the dress because she looks fabulous. Life is not all about
us, believe it or not. Sometimes we forget that other people need encouraging just
as we do.
2.
It is acceptable to dance at any point during the day. Grace
takes dance classes, so this comes natural to her. However, professionals or
not, dancing is the best way to take a break from the constant seriousness and
stress of life. I personally struggle with this one because I am naturally just
a very serious person. However, I will let you all in on a little secret. When
I get ready for the day, I put on a playlist that consists of nothing but booty
poppin’, rap music. And yes, you guessed it, I dance. I wobble while putting on powder, I twerk while waiting on
my flat iron to warm up and I drop that thun thun thun while putting on my
clothes. Life is just more fun that way.
3. Just because someone doesn’t like you, does not mean you make them an enemy. When school was still in session, I would go and eat lunch with Grace at least once a week to catch up on all the 4th grade gossip. All of her little friends would tell me about this girl that was a total brat to everyone and honestly could not stand Grace. She even tried to turn all of her friends against her! Now if ever put in this situation, I would start planning all of the ways to make the bratty girl’s life a living hell. But because my cousin is obviously a less evil person than I am, she just completely ignores it. Yeah, you read that right, she just lets it go. There is a lot we can take from that. Just because there is a girl who gives you the stink eye every day and makes it known that if you were burning alive she would rather drink the water than save you, still does not mean you should make her your enemy. There is no point. Think of it this way: obviously she sees something in you that she envies. And instead of wasting time feeding her the attention that she wants, just let it go and move forward with your awesome life.
3. Just because someone doesn’t like you, does not mean you make them an enemy. When school was still in session, I would go and eat lunch with Grace at least once a week to catch up on all the 4th grade gossip. All of her little friends would tell me about this girl that was a total brat to everyone and honestly could not stand Grace. She even tried to turn all of her friends against her! Now if ever put in this situation, I would start planning all of the ways to make the bratty girl’s life a living hell. But because my cousin is obviously a less evil person than I am, she just completely ignores it. Yeah, you read that right, she just lets it go. There is a lot we can take from that. Just because there is a girl who gives you the stink eye every day and makes it known that if you were burning alive she would rather drink the water than save you, still does not mean you should make her your enemy. There is no point. Think of it this way: obviously she sees something in you that she envies. And instead of wasting time feeding her the attention that she wants, just let it go and move forward with your awesome life.
4.
Wear what you want and own it. My family comes together
for dinner often. Once at one of these dinners Grace showed up in her dance
outfit, complete with tutu and all. My aunt looked at her and asked “really
Grace? Is that what you want to wear to dinner?” Without any hesitation she
replied with one word: duh. We live in a judgmental society. It doesn’t matter
if we wear a turtleneck and a long skirt or a tube top and short shorts,
someone will have something to say about it. My point is: we might as well wear
what we want. For example, crop tops. I am the queen of crop tops. And I may
not have a super flat stomach or abs, but guess what? I wear them anyway. I wear maxi dresses to the movies, wedges to
Wal-Mart and Nike shorts to dinner. I wear what I want to wear and am totally unapologetic
about it. You should be too.
5.
Boys should NOT be the center of our universe. For
the longest time I have obsessed about finding “the one”. Many of my friends
are the same way. In fact, my cousin is one of the few people who doesn't ask me about my dating life. She
is more interested in what I am doing, how school is going, how my friends are
and what I want to do in the future. These are things that I should start being
interested in about myself and others too. Constantly talking about whether or
not so and so has a boyfriend, or all of the dates that you went on yet you still
haven’t found someone, is just annoying.
SO WHAT if everyone you graduated with is getting engaged. SO WHAT if you haven’t
dated anyone in over a year. SO WHAT if you would rather travel the world with
your best friend than with a boyfriend. The right person has not come along
yet, and that’s okay. Keep living life for yourself. Because the only
person you should rely on for pure happiness is you.
Humorous, insightful, positive, and grammatically correct. All of the things I love in a good blog post. You keep doing you. <3
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