The Small Storms

What I’ve learned in 2016 1. Friendship is a matter of convenience. It can be true and beautiful and fun and full of love until she moves to another city for college and finds 10 more people she can ‘connect’ with. 2. You don’t have to pursue a boring degree for a boring job. Yes, your passion is for things that make it harder to fetch money but you have one life. Do you really want to spend it doing something you don’t absolutely love? If you’re passionate about something, no matter what, you will excel, you will thrive. That’s the key to real success. Not some statistics stating the most lucrative jobs and industries. 3. You will exercise. You will drink more water. You will eat healthier. Not because you’re not beautiful the way you are but because your body deserves to be treated better. It literally has carries you around, has your back and actually has your heart from that first moment to your very last. 4. If they are a bitch to others what makes you think they won’t be one to you when the time comes? How people treat others is always a tell tale of how they will treat you. Pay attention. It’s better than feeling like a fool 6 years later. 5. Cook your own meals sometimes. You know just the amount of oil, salt and ingredients you want. You may not be a masterchef but you know what your stomach wants. 6. Surround yourself with happiness, inspiration and positivity and a very major part of that is social media. Who you follow is so important. Social media is supposed to be a happy and safe place for you. Choose the right people and the right works to fill your feeds because eventually those fill your mind and heart. 7. Nature is all healing. It’s the one thing in the beautiful presence of which even the most talkative person like you feels the need to shut up. Nature requires no words. It’s completeness is something to learn from. 8. Your parents live a life apart from being your parents. They have moments you’re not a part of, moments you don’t even know. They have not only had a life before you but also a life with you being there that you don’t know about. That’s okay and that’s not something to be mad about. 9. People will leave you. Always. Some in days, some in months. There are those who take decades and then there are those who never leave in physical form but withdraw all meaning and that’s when you must leave. But just because people leave their stay doesn’t become any less wonderful or important. 10. Sometimes the only person you need at 3 am is yourself. Give yourself mode credit. You can always help yourself. It may just take a little longer and be a little harder but you don’t need another person to help you. You are enough. You are strong. You will never disappoint. 11. Music of all type is necessary. Songs that make you cry and the ones that make you think and then those that make you only want to dance. 12. Draw. Everyone is an artist. And your drawings may look like those of a middle school kid but isn’t your joy just like hers? 13. Read more books. Yes, you’re older now and busier too but ‘busy ’ is an excuse and you know it. Find time for something that saved you. Find time for something that you love. 14. Lipstick is life. People may stare at you and they may get intimidated by certain shades but that’s okay, one smile and they will be at peace. 15. Click more selfies and click them without any shame. If you’re happy, if you look at yourself and feel like capturing that one moment where you feel good about yourself - go fucking ahead. Capture all your happiness, beauty and goofy-ness. But remember, they are for you and not your social media. 16. There’s literally no way you can help someone without helping yourself. And they may give you nothing in return and they may be ungrateful but who cares? They aren’t half the person you are and you can shrug it off and move on but remember unlike you, Karma never forgets. Also, karma is only a bitch if you are. The darkest moment is the very moment before sunrise. It’s a fact. So 2016 may have been your darkest time but that only means the sunlight of happiness and inspiration and love awaits you in 2017.

Give people time. Give people space. Don’t beg anyone to stay. Let them roam. What’s meant for you will always be yours.

my mom told me.. “a person who values you, wouldn’t ever put themselves in a position to lose you.” and that really hit deep.

I think everything in life is art. What you do. How you dress. The way you love someone, and how you talk. Your smile and your personality. What you believe in, and all your dreams. The way you drink your tea. How you decorate your home. Or party. Your grocery list. The food you make. How your writing looks. And the way you feel. Life is art.

You’ll ache. And you’re going to love it. It will crush you. And you’re still going to love all of it. Doesn’t it sound lovely beyond belief?

1. The friends you have at the beginning of the year can completely change by the end of it. People change, and if they aren’t improving your life in some way, it’s okay to drop them. 2. Take many pictures. Don’t let it take over your life, though. You don’t want to look back and see that you only captured your memories with your camera lens and not within your mind and heart. 3. Find your safe place. Whether it be in the arms of a certain person or on the balcony of Barnes and Nobles with a cup of soup, find it and don’t let it go. You can have more than one safe place. 4. Be nice to everyone. You honestly don’t know what skeletons people are hiding in their closets. Everyone has their skeleton. Every person on this earth has something in their life or past worth collapsing on the ground in uncontrollable sobs over. 5. Reading is so important. Highlight the things that you read that you find intriguing. Read a lot, it can only do good things for you. 6. Writing always helps. 7. The girl with anxiety has the deepest thoughts. The autistic boy has the kindest heart, and the schizophrenic has the ability to put a smile on your face in seconds. Do not judge character based on a mental illness. 8. Music has an indescribable ability to connect and heal. Let it do its thing. 9. Her prettiness doesn’t make your prettiness any less pretty. 10. Getting close and letting someone in is scary as hell. You know what else it is? Worth it. 11. The minute you feel your happiness being dictated by someone else, take a break from them. 12. Adventuring is a must. Sunsets always help the soul, showing that endings can be as beautiful as beginnings. 13. Spend more time with your parents doing things they enjoy. Later in life, you’ll be wishing you’d spent more time with them than on your Netflix account. 14. Home is not always a place, but whatever you love with your whole heart. I have many homes, and it’s okay if one home doesn’t feel like home anymore. 15. Making someone smile and feel genuinely happy has the ability to warm your heart from the inside out. No matter how much pain someone is going through, you made them forget about it for a few seconds. Isn’t that something? 16. Feel everything and let it hurt, but don’t go back to what broke you. 17. Don’t let fear hold you back from what you want. The view from the other side is spectacular. 18. Tell people how you feel. Even if you’re scared it’ll burn your life to the ground. You say it loud. 19. You find the most extraordinary things in the most ordinary places. 20. Swollen lips and sweaty “I want you’s” can make you feel again, but I don’t want to feel anything if it means having to sit there feeling like the wind is constantly being knocked out of me when he stops calling back. 21. Sometimes the way you think of someone isn’t the way they actually are. 22. Never underestimate the amount of joy the holiday season can bring you. Try and find ways to feel that way all year long. 23. Timing is never going to be perfect; if you care about something enough, you’ll make the time. It’s all about priorities. 24. If women used their words to build each other up instead of tearing each other down, our world would change drastically. 25. Recovery can take 2 weeks or 5 years. You aren’t any less of a person if it takes you longer to find a way to let go of what’s hurting your heart. 26. You only need yourself, but having people by your side trying to understand means a lot more than you might think. 27. You find your truest friends in your darkest hours. 28. You can feel the whole world in a month and nothing after 2 years. Time does not define love. 29. Always say yes to dessert. 30. Concerts make life worth living. So does yelling your favorite song along with your best friend in the car with your best friend with hands intertwined. These are things that show you that you don’t need to be on drugs to feel invincible. 31. So does kissing.

Date someone who meets you half way. Date someone who brings you a glass a water when they get themselves one. Date someone who makes sure you don’t spend money on ridiculous things. Date someone your ex hates and your mom loves. Date someone who’d rather spend a Friday night watching movies, than out with 50 people they barely even talk to. Date someone who sleeps on your chest and leaves a little puddle of drool. Don’t date someone who makes you leave oceans of tears.

[…] Well, now, if little by little you stop loving me I shall stop loving you little by little. If suddenly you forget me do not look for me, for I shall already have forgotten you. […]