25 Things I've Learned by my 26th Birthday

As I no longer fit into the early 20's category, I find myself qualified to share the wisdom of my youth. Here are the musings of a mid-to- late 20 something:

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1. Check your privilege before you wreck your privilege
2. Laughter is the best medicine, make others laugh and become a healer. 
3. Money is for giving away and saving for vacations. 
4. "You don't need a silver fork to eat good food" Paul Prudhomme 
5. It's ok to be messy, I've spent too much time stressing about messes that I now embrace as exemplifying a life well lived. 
6. It's pretty hard to look sexy while eating a salad...
7. If you don't like you situation in life, change it! Complaining does good for no one.
8. Embrace change, it's the only way to move forward.
9. "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results"- Albert Einstein 
10. Waste is just unacceptable in todays world, value every resources as precious. 
11. Go at your own pace, you define what is right for you. Take a month to read a book, take a two hour lunch, take a year or two off!
12.  Live within your means, don't spend money you don't have, debt is the worst. 
13. Always wear clean underwear...if your going to wear any at all
14. I am perfectly happy being perfectly average, my new standard for sustainability. 
15. "Do not speak unless you can improve the silence" Baroness Rodmilla De Ghent, Ever After 
16. Do what makes you happy and what will make others happy in the future.
17. Respect yours elders, and spend a much time learning from them as you can.
18. Stop trying to fit in when you were born to stand out. There is no normal. 
19. "To all the girls who think you're fat because you're not a size zero. You are beautiful, it is society that is ugly." Marilyn Monroe
20. Food is essential to life, therefore make it good. 
21. Do not measure your self worth in Facebook likes. 
22. “My weaknesses have always been food and men — in that order.” - Dolly Parton
23. If you can't kill it yourself, don't eat it. 
24. You can do and achieve anything you put your mind to, I'm graduating University after all!
25. 'Live simply so that others may simply live.'- Mahatma Gandhi

Have a lovely day,

XX Melanie