Life Lessons

Image source: Lovelyish

I'm a big fan of "things you learn in your [insert age-decade here]" lists. There's something very comforting about someone -- even someone you don't know or who has little expertise on the subject other than having lived through it -- telling you that all the things you worry about and all the things you dislike about yourself will become meaningless as you get older. This particular article in the NYTimes was enjoyable because it's prospective (for me at least), rather than retrospective. In other words, perhaps I can take these lessons to heart now rather than reading the list and checking off all the items I did indeed learn when I was 20. But then again, maybe you can't learn certain lessons until you reach the appropriate age -- there are surely things I wish I knew when I was in my 20s, but I don't think my 20-year-old self would have listened to a single thing future-Liz had to tell her. 

A sub-list of my favorite lessons from the article:

• "There are no soul mates. Not in the traditional sense, at least. In my 20s someone told me that each person has not one but 30 soul mates walking the earth. ('Yes,' said a colleague, when I informed him of this, 'and I’m trying to sleep with all of them.') In fact, 'soul mate' isn’t a pre-existing condition. It’s an earned title. They’re made over time."
• "You will miss out on some near soul mates. This goes for friendships, too. There will be unforgettable people with whom you have shared an excellent evening or a few days. Now they live in Hong Kong, and you will never see them again. That’s just how life is."
• "Just say 'no.' Never suggest lunch with people you don’t want to have lunch with. They will be much less disappointed than you think."