Lessons (1 - 20)

• EAT - An empty stomach does not equate beauty. It may not seem like it now, but it's possible to love yourself with a full stomach.
• Never take a blade to your own skin for any reason, not even curiosity - you may not regret the scars, but you'll always wonder how things could have been if you had never started.
• Emotion is not weakness. Crying is not weakness.
• Do harm to none, but that doesn't mean that you should be a pushover. Know your limits.
• You are worthy - of him, of her, of yourself most of all.
• You don't need to be naked to feel confident about yourself, but that doesn't mean you should hide in your clothes either.
• "No." is a complete sentence with no explanation needed.
• Love does not equate sex, in the same way that Sex does not equate love.
• Take all the time you need to cry when you need to, but remember to pick yourself up when you're done.
• He or she will leave you, and it will feel like the end of the world - it is not.
• Listen to whatever music you want - the only justification you should need should be that it makes you happy.
• Take lots of pictures. It doesn't matter if they're crap - take them anyway, you'll be glad for them one day.
• Listen to as many stories as you can, but don't forget to tell your own - it's a story that's as worth listening to as any other.
• Even if you think you don't have a reason to stay alive, you do.
• Your grades are not a measure of your intelligence, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do your best.
• The shit that happens to you is not important, but how you deal with the shit is.
• Stop trying to act cool, and you will BE cool.
• Friends aren't people you see every day, or every week, or sometimes even every month. The only thing that matters is that you're as relaxed and happy as you've always been when you meet.
• People show their love in many different ways - just because they don't show love in the way you expect doesn't mean that they don't love.
• You can be passionate about a hundred things or just one, but what matters is that you're passionate about something.

These are things that I've learned over the past 20 or so years, and I've found them to be largely accurate even though I'm still struggling with some of them. They're like personal lessons, and I've always wanted to be able to remember as many of them as possible and pass them on to my future daughter (because for some reason I keep thinking I'll have a daughter in the future) or anyone who's willing to listen.

I'm posting 20 for now because they're all I can remember, but I'll post more as I go along - I'll be scribbling them into my book for easy reference!