Things I Learned This Year

• Too-tight pajama pants give me a stomachache every morning and cause me to lose weight due to reduced appetite, but once I switch to properly fitting pajama pants I'm fine.
• If you've been coughing for five weeks and you suddenly find yourself constantly dizzy but never fainting, it's almost definitely a sinus infection.
• Sometimes it's really important to NOT keep secrets.
• My worth is not defined by how much people value me, but by what I am willing to do for them. If they don't appreciate how much I care about them, that's their choice and their problem. I am still a kind friend if I'm WILLING to keep all their secrets and take care of them.
• Dancing like a weirdo in front of a bunch of people you don't know very well is actually like the best thing ever.
• And no one cares what you look like as long as you're clearly having a good time.
• If you often have allergies, take that 24-hour allergy medicine. Just TAKE IT. You'll regret not doing it in the afternoon when your eyes are bloodshot and itchy.
• Patched jeans make a great conversation piece.
• Random people are willing to help you.
• Listen to what strangers have to say. They may not know you, but their words may change your life.
• A building's eighteenth story is very high up.
• Wearing jeans to bed on the night of a baby's due date isn't worth it. You'll have time to get changed, especially if she waits a week and a half to get born.
• I can get and keep a debate partner!
• That thing about guys not wearing hats during prayer is actually from the Bible. It's not just random. (1 Corinthians 11:4)
• "Peruse" means to read thoroughly, not to glance over quickly. Read thoroughly. Read thoroughly. Peruse means to read thoroughly. Peruse. Read thoroughly. .... It still sounds wrong.
• Sometimes people who matter a lot to you stop being part of your life. And it's okay to miss them. You've just got to hold on to the good influence they were, which can last for the rest of your life even if the relationship doesn't.
• If just one family out of every three churches in America adopted a child out of foster care, there would be no orphans in this country. Let's get our act together. (James 1:27)
• Don't try to jump up a brick retaining wall while wearing boots for the first time all season and holding a rake. You'll probably end up with scars on multiple parts of your body.
• You can find great stuff in hand-me-down consignment store clothes 👍
• Small children give odd compliments.
• People will get excessively dogmatic about the right way to celebrate holidays that aren't even instituted in Scriptures. At a certain point you just need to block out all their rules about the tenses of carols and when you can set out what parts of your manger scene and just celebrate in the way that brings YOU closer to Christ, honors Him faithfully, helps you focus on people you love and positive ideals, and makes you happy. Jesus doesn't mind if you spend all month telling people you hope they enjoy His birthday. It's okay.
• I apparently have the capacity to compose a song with original lyrics and a tune and stuff. It's too bad I can't play any instruments or write music... because I can hear in my head what the accompaniment should sound like too.
• Maybe a lot of people notice something that is ailing you personally. Maybe some of them complain about how it inconveniences them (not because they're troubling themselves to help you, just because the symptoms of your suffering are annoying to them) and maybe no one bothers to ask if you're okay. The fact that you're getting through it all alone means you are a very strong individual. Props to you. You'll make it.
• Filling out a checkbook register isn't that hard once you're told how to do it, you just have to pay attention to the math.
• Senseless people's opinions of you are entirely irrelevant.  Some people's opinions do matter, but if they're crazy strangers, what they say about you does not reflect one bit on who you really are. 
• Probably a lot of other things I can't remember now... but hopefully the influence of those lessons stays with me, even if I can't put words to why my actions have changed. Happy New Year!