That phrase if I only knew then what I know now.... hits home with me in so many levels.
I decided to look over some things I wished the younger me would have known or taken more time to understand. I'm sure I could come up with a whole book of the choices I made but I'll just start with the top ten that come to mind right now... I would tell the old me... 1. To travel more. I spent my whole childhood traveling due to being a military brat which was great, but I didn't take as much effort once I was an adult. God has put so many beautiful places on this earth that I want to explore. The time is now. 2. To start with the end in mind when I came to my future career. To start with my passions and goals for my life and then decide on a field of study in college or whatnot that would be conducive to what my end goals were. I enjoyed then and still do now volunteering, helping others, writing/reading, and children's books- maybe I would have gone a different direction in school with that in mind. 3. To understand In high school that boys should not have been one of my biggest concerns. ;) 4. No credit cards in college!! It wasn't necessary for me especially when I didn't have steady employment nor the maturity to handle it. Finances in general I wish that I knew what I know now. Live way below your means! Pay cash if you can! Trust you can always find an item cheaper or on discount eventually. ;) 5. To elope. :) I joke about this with friends, but I wish my husband and I would have either eloped or had a super small and personal wedding (maybe a party of 50 or much less). It would have been nice to make the day just about he and I, instead of worrying about everyone else and the money we could have saved!!!!! The energy some people put into their wedding day, while forgetting about the actual marriage is interesting. 5. To speak up more. I was a pretty timid child and then battled low self esteem for many years. I wish I understood who I was and that I could say no and speak up for myself more. If I didn't spend so much time worried about what others thought, I might have said more. 6. To Save!! To plan and save for the things I want and to always be prepared for life's ups and downs when it comes to great deals and unexpected expenses. 7. To not compare- as my husband always tells me, " I don't care what so and so has, I want what God has for me." You can't always believe what you see when you look at what others have- you don't know their journey or financial situation so don't try to keep up with the "Jones." 8. To have made better connections with people. Most people would say I'm extroverted but for many years I really didn't want to be bothered with others outside of what I had to. I didn't have real or deep relationships just surface ones. Now I make a better effort to get to know people on a more real level and I self-disclose like a crazy person! ;). I'm a real person with real life situations I experience- there is no need to pretend like I have it all together because I don't! 9. To go to God in prayer first before asking for everyone else's opinion or before one of my famous pity parties. I've spent so much wasted time whining, complaining, and worrying about things that always as the scripture says, work out for my good in the end! 10. To challenge the status quo. Just because everyone else is doing something doesn't mean I have to. Be ok with change. Be prepared for random questions about your choices. Stop caring about what others think because seriously everyone has their own issues. From experience everyone's advice isn't always good advice... I'm so glad that as life goes on I will continue to grow and learn from situations I experience. If I can help anyone else in their personal journey, then my lessons learned (many times the hard way) will be all worth it in the end. Thank God!
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