Twenty Lessons I Learned In Twenty Years

I recently celebrated my 20th birthday (it was on March 23, 2014). It's funny because 20 doesn't feel all that different from 19 which didn't feel different from 18 which didn't feel different from 17 and so on. Yet 20 feels very different from 17 so somewhere in there things changed. I celebrated my birthday with different people than I had with just a year ago. It's amazing to think how quickly the people that you think will be there forever are gone. It's also ironic to realize this and then still think that the "new" people I celebrated with this year will be there for the rest of my life. Want to know a secret? One of them, maybe two if I'm lucky, will be a part of the rest of my life. Last year I celebrated my birthday with a fairly large group of people...a year later and I'm still friends with two of them. But, enough about that...so roughly 20 years ago I came into this big big world.

(I'm the infant, not the chubby ginger FYI.)

I came out screaming and peeing all covered in goop, as my dad describes it anyway. I went from being this little bald thing to a 20 year old with ridiculously curly hair (that was so unkept that when I got all of the dead ends cut off a couple weeks ago it has resulted in a humiliatingly short "triangle boy-bob" (all my fellow curly haired friends know what I'm talking about) and I have vowed to regularly trim my hair as to avoid this catastrophe again." About a year after my birth I was provided with my "built in best friend" in the form of my cousin Caleb, with whom I celebrated the big 2-0! So while we're not as close as we once were, we're still going strong. 

(He's taller than me now, has black hair, and is kind of a human mass of solid muscle. I discovered difrizzer!)

When I was six my baby sister was born. I've lived in 5 towns, 2 states, 8 houses, and attended 3 different schools. I haven't learned everything there is to learn, but I have learned some. I'm not going to share everything I've learned with you, but I'll share some. I want to share 20 things that I've learned within my 20 years of life. Most of them I learned from other people. such as my parents or teachers.

1) Kevin Bacon is not in all of the historical movies, just the good ones.

2) Christ loved me so much he died for me and without him I am nothing.

3) If you try hard enough you can get all of the bubbles out of GermX

4) There is a world full of broken and hurting people and God has anointed and chosen me to help them and to love them.

5) Sisters make the best friends and they will always be there. Cherish them, spend time with them, protect the, and invest into them.

6) Car surfing is NEVER a good idea and will ALWAYS end in an emergency room visit and a pair of crutches.

7) Talking to strangers can actually be dangerous (that's a "fun" story.) STRANGER DANGER!

8) You are capable of so much more than you think you are.

9) God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called. Answer his call and he will equip you.

10) Parents really do know what they're talking about.

11) The book is always better than the movie.

12) You will find very few friends that you stay close to after you guys move away from each other. When you find these friends hang on to them. They're amazing!

13) Never having dated or kissed anyone doesn't make you a reject or less desirable. It just makes you someone's one and only instead of one of many. 

14) You'll thank your mom for making you learn how to cook and do laundry.

15) God will always provide.

16) Not everyone will like you and as long as you're not a jerk that is perfectly okay and even normal.

17) When burning trash ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS make sure the fire is completely out before you leave or you may come back to find your neighbors field in flames.

18) "Tomorrow is always fresh with not mistakes in it, yet." - Anne of Green Gables

19) You literally will not talk to hardly anyone from High School after High School so stop investing so much into what they think about you.

20) Life is not hard, it's difficult. But, it's also fun and worth it. Enjoy live and live ever day to the fullest.

So, there are just some of the things I've learned in my two decades on this planet. I hope that if you haven't learned some of these yourself you will. 

~ Carrots

P.S. Today (March 24) Is Crowhead's birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE! I LOVE YOU!