Life 101

I think that at different points throughout your life, you're asked to take a good, hard look at who you are and you're forced to learn some difficult things. Here's what I've learned lately:

I can't do everything
I think I'm often disillusioned into thinking that I will always have enough time and energy and resources to do whatever I want and to be involved in whatever I want. If my current state of absolute exhaustion has taught me anything, it's that I can't always do everything if I expect to remain sane.

I can't take care of everyone
I've always just taken for granted that I can always take care of everyone and fix everything. Lately, I've been faced with a couple of things that no one can fix, let alone me. It hurts, and it's hard, but I've had to try and accept that people don't always want to be taken care of and things can't always be made better.

Not everyone is like me
Now, that might sound like a stupid thing to say, but what I mean is that people don't feel the same things as I do and people don't react in the same ways as me. I know I'm fairly emotional, but I guess I just assumed that everyone else felt as much as I do. Maybe not felt as much, but I just feel like I can never deny my emotions or my instincts. I can never be too empirical or pragmatic, and I've noticed lately that others aren't like that. Some people don't want a shoulder to cry on when they're upset, some people don't want to talk out all their issues, some people find it easier to listen to their head rather than their heart.

Dignity is perhaps the most important thing you can possess
Again, situations lately have made me realize that without dignity, one is also without much more. Dignity is related to pride, respect, grace, and at least partially, what I see as intelligence. If one can maintain as much dignity in situations as possible, than one is going to be happier and more successful. This has a lot of connotations. In your personal life, you shouldn't always be apologizing for things and you shouldn't always go crawling back to the people you care about. I'm not saying you should burn bridges by being too prideful, but I am saying that you should choose what you should sacrifice yourself for and right the wrongs that are genuinely caused by you. But it also means having principles and not backing down from them in the face of pressure.

And finally, life is simply just not fair.
This is definitely cliched to say, but it's true. Bad things will happen to good people yet bad things may never happen to bad people. People will always misunderstand and misjudge you. You will always be asked to deal with things that are too much for anyone to deal with. Sometimes, there won't be enough time in a day to do all that you really must do. Most of the time, few people will agree with you. Not everyone will act in a way that you deem sensible. You can't always bridge the gap between yourself and others, meaning that you may not always be able to explain your intentions and your desires to others in a way that changes anything.

So, in summary, I've decided that the best I can do now is realize all of the above things and, in my newfound striving for constant dignity, still try anyway.