Things I've Learned

- Typically for me I don't feel any different after a birthday. Not even when I turned 16. I remember I just felt like a 15 year old with a driver’s license. It may be that society has drilled it into my head that being 21 means something but since last Friday my perspective on things has changed quite a bit. Almost overnight, I stopped seeing myself as a kid. It’s not a stance of superiority or wisdom but again, one of perspective. Suddenly my future doesn't seem so far away and at the same time it doesn't seem so ominous. I don't tell people I'm from Denver anymore. When they ask where I'm from I tell them Fort Collins. This may not be completely true from a financial codependent standpoint or what I list when a form asks for my "permanent address" but it seems that these days when I go "home" it feels more like a vacation to see my family than home. This is a pretty big shift for me. I'm enjoying it a lot though. I'm setting the foundation for a life on my own.

- With that I feel like spewing out a few things I've learned over my first 21 years of life:

- 1. Nobody's perfect.
Nobody. If you think someone is perfect it’s because you're choosing to overlook their flaws to fit them into the image of who you wish they were. Imperfection doesn't have to be such a bad thing. I'm actually glad for it. Without those quirks that make people human we have nothing to reference their good with except our bad. Compared to perfection we're terrible and nothing points that out better than somebody who's got it all. Friendship and love is learning to accept the bad with the good as part of what makes somebody who they are and loving both the good and the bad for this very reason.

- 2. Music and art make life beautiful.
If you don't appreciate it learn to. The doors to enjoying everything you experience art and beyond will open.

- 3. A sense of humor in a person says volumes about them as a person.
In regards to intelligence, agreeableness, and ability to persevere through hard times there is no description of a person's personality that tells you more about who they are.

- 4. You don't need money to have a good time, but...
money will give you something to do. There's also never enough of it.

- 5. God is faithful.
Always. Faithful is a churchy word I know but year after year that statement rings true. It floors me to think about.

- 6. The Texas Longhorns > The Oklahoma Sooners

- 7. The best girls aren't always the ones that have a lot of guys after them.
All it means when a girl is surrounded by guys is that she’s been advertising herself to them. As a sex we're really lazy and will ignore the most beautiful, smart, vivacious gem of a girl in pursuit of a sure thing. Some of the girls I know have got to be women's best kept secrets. They take awhile to get to get to know but everyone that takes the time gets hooked.

- 8. Introspection is cathartic.

- 9. Find a stupid thing that makes you happy and just let it make you happy without focusing on how stupid it may be.
I've got several of these: a new warm pair of socks, fanny packs, getting absorbed in my music when I'm driving alone, and my rock-star pose when using a urinal. I'm not sure why or when I started that one but whenever I do it I start cracking up. I've had many a bad day turned around by them.

- 10. Jazz is underappreciated.
As an art form. As a means of release. As a key American cultural component. As a music.

- 11. People that take themselves really seriously don't usually like me very much.
Its sad but true. Cause its not always the case that I don't like them.

- 12. Feed your tendencies.
Don't be completely inflexible but realize that you are who you are and the fact that that in itself is something. It may not always show but I'm kind of introverted and a loner. If you still don't believe me I think the best example of how this manifests itself day to day is in my general dislike of talking on the phone. Even to people I love. I don't always hate it but there have been times where my phone rings with someone I want to catch up with and I just won't pick it up because it takes a certain something to gear me up for social interaction. It’s caused problems in my life before, but I've come to realize that its just who I am. I can't change it and I don't want to.

- 13. Life is what you make it.
Good, bad, or ugly. Its your choice the things you let get to you, the things you won't, the things you enjoy, the things you don't, the people you let in, the attitude you pick, the choices you make.

- I suppose I've learned a few other things but most of them involve cheat codes and the supernintendo version of the game Lion King. Heres to many more years and hoping that when its my time to go, I've experienced as much as I hope to in life.