Every Jan. 1 we're all guilted into taking a long hard look at our lives over the past 365 days. It's as if we've collectively decided that the year is a package deal and all events within its time frame are very neatly related and easily quantified and can be evaluated accordingly. Although this idea is a complete pipe dream, we all need a sense of beginning and ending to provide the sanity-stabilizing guise that we're in control and our lives can be gauged. And so we're issued a new number. We buy a fresh calendar and start at page one, and we write vows to ourselves to make the most of the twelve months ahead of us.
I don't want to make a change in my life just for the sake of a date seemingly unlike any other, but I have taken a closer look at my happiest moments and biggest regrets of the past year and have compiled a small list of REMINDERS to myself to check back on every once in awhile. 15 for 2015...preeeeetty smooth, eh?
1. "The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them." — Maya Angelou
2. Avoid vodka. But drink wine by the box-loads.
3. If it looks delicious, eat it.
4. If you feel awful, take a shower. If you still feel awful, consume the contents of your fridge. If you STILL feel awful and now your stomach is angry, go to sleep. Everything makes more sense after 8 hours of unconsciousness.
5. Go home and visit your parents and remember where you came from and remember who you are.
6. writewritewrite!
7. Nothing good happens after 2AM. Except 2:30AM $1 pizza.
8. Nothing is black and white. Get comfy with the gray. THRIVE amongst the gray! (*Also, maybe go see 50 Shades of Gray in the theater by yourself and deny til you die if questioned on it).
9. Don't wait around for someone to fall in love with you.
10. Moisturize.
11. Stick with your gut...other than the final resting place for your beer, it has a helpful purpose.12. Take a zillion pictures and don't delete any of them. Someday when our faces are unrecognizably wrinkly and we're covered in spider veins, we'll consider that photo from 2015 with the accidental double chin something to show off to the great grandkids.
13. Kanye is a terrible person. But adopt Kanye's I'm-the-shit attitude. Dial it back to a strong 3, and you'll for sure make a decent rap album without pissing off everyone you know.
14. Speak up. If you're unhappy, say something. If you have a great idea at work, tell someone. If you're in line at CVS behind Justin Timberlake, scream.
15. The universe is unfolding as it should.
