Life Lessons.

I would like to share with you a few tips of advice I have been fortunate enough to learn at an early age.

It is better to love and get hurt than to have never loved at all.
It is better to take chances than wonder what might have happened.
When you fall down 5 times, you get up 6.
It is better to feel sorrow, than to feel absolutely numb.
It is better to leave than risk hurting yourself over and over.
Everyone deserves a second chance.
Only you can determine your self worth.
Genius stems from madness.
Brilliance stems from hurt.
Music cures a multitude of ills.
Miracles do happen.
Standing in the rain is quite cleansing.
It is better to be respected than to be liked.
The only way to fail at life is to abstain.
Time heals all.
Forgive but don't forget.
Refuse to be a slave to the ordinary.
Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.
It is both a blessing and a curse to feel emotion very deeply.
Think with your heart.
It's never too late to be who you want to be.
It's okay to start over.
You can do anything...but not everything.
It is better to be single than to settle.
It's okay to be a mess sometimes.
Tears are okay,too.
You can't hang out with negative people and expect to live a positive life.
Shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist.
Know when it's time to leave.
The hardest people to love also love the hardest.
Sometimes people just need a smile.
Step outside your comfort zone.
Adventure may hurt but monotony will kill you.
See the beauty in everyday things.
Pray every step of the way.
A home is about who you're with.
It's okay to fail.
Make peace with your past.
Stop thinking too much.
Stop comparing your darkest days to everyone elses highlight reel.
Not everyone is meant to stay.
Life is scary.
Life is beautiful.

Acceptance.

You know what makes life suck? Expectation. Not like expecting simple things, like to come home for instance,but unreasonable expectation. We as human beings expect to be as the media tells us to be. From birth we are bred to be the best of the best. We crave being the perfect human being. A Victoria's Secret looking bodied, Albert Einstein brained, Mozart piano playing person. Truth is, this is unattainable. So when we aren't these things, we become unhappy. We think that we will be happier if we were just a little skinnier, or richer, or more successful, or smarter or more admired. Even that we aren't loved enough or that we aren't loved in the way we're supposed to be. This ultimately leads to our demise as a happy person. We forget to live in the moment. We constantly postpone really living all just over the notion of what life should be like, rather than what life is actually  like.   Why do we continuously INSIST that our lives should be a certain way? Why don't you value them the way they are now? Stop living for the unattainable. Instead live for the now, the today, the moments we will never get back. 

New Year.

As cliche as it sounds,I love the New Year. It feels like an infinite amount of opportunity waits for you in the coming months. It is with the first day of the new year that one feels refreshed. It's almost an invincible feeling,really. Truthfully, we don't know what the new year will bring. That's part of the mystery of it all. For some, they might get married. But for others, the year might end in divorce. Some may graduate, while others drop out of school. Some families may expand, while others experience loss. That's the beautiful part of the new year. The unknown. Think about how tragic life would be without the unknown. How dreadful would it be every day to wake up knowing what was going to happen? Think about that for a second. Can you imagine waking up knowing it was your last day on earth? Or the opposite end of the spectrum, can you imagine waking up knowing you were going to be proposed to? It is the unknown that makes the new year so magical. It is the unknown that makes each fresh start beautiful. It is the unknown that makes life so special. 

Your turn.

I would like to try a project that I've always wanted to do. I would really like to make a collection of original stories from individuals. I would like to publish on this blog the hardest thing you've ever been through, the thing you grew from the most, or even your darkest secret. The post will be completely anonymous, and your story will not have an author. I will post my own as well. I think one of the most beautiful things in the world is people at their lowest. I love people at their most vulnerable. That's when you truly get to know someone. I will be back to posting my usual blog posts! This isn't the only thing I'll ever post. However, I would like to sum them all up together in a folder and post them as an availability for people to read. To send me your story, contact me at carolinebbriggs@gmail.com 

The most inspiring story will recieve a $25 gift card of your choice. 

Xoxo

Heartache.

Relationships have been on my mind a lot recently. Not the happy, precious, relationships. The ones that end in anguish, like ashes scattered from an old flame. It is these relationships that truly test our strength. Sure, every relationship begins with butterflies, staying up late, smiling as you fall asleep, countless phone calls, and many kisses. But these aren't what truly define you. Failed relationships are a whole new experience. They can make you feel worthless. They can make you feel insecure. Vulnerable. Stupid. Not good enough. Broken. What failed relationships really come down to is failed love. And love, by its definition, is a feeling of warm personal attachment. And that's what is hard. Letting go of the attachment. Going from that person being the body your whole life orbits, to a person you can't even look at in the hallway. Failed love is hard. However, it would be unfair to say that it is unjust and unecessary. There was once a boy that my whole life centered. I swore I couldn't love without him. I was broken. Truly broken. Shattered actually. So broken that I couldn't even function normally. At the time I didn't understand what I did to deserve that horrible consequence. But that was my greatest gift. It is with my deepest scars that I truly found myself. It is with my first heartbreak that I realized how tough my skin is. It was my first failed relationship that I realized just how amazing love is. 

If you are going through heartache, I know how you feel. Do not give up hope. You will come out the other side better than you ever were before. Tougher. Wiser. Changed. 

God.

Disclaimer: 

Religion is something that is considered quite controversial in today's society. This is my personal experience with my religion, please don't be offended. 

 I have always been raised in a Christian family. I have always been encouraged to pray. I recited Bible verses as a child. I knew hyms by heart, and so on. However, my family was never one to go to church every Sunday. We went to church on Easter and Christmas, like a lot of people do, but that was it. I knew of God, but I definitely didn't know God. In middle school and my freshman year I strayed even more away from religion. I had a very tough time in middle school and my freshman year, even seeing a therapist for depression. I would pray every night, but quickly became discouraged because God didn't answer my prayers as quickly as I wanted to. I began to become hopeless. I swore that God didn't care about me, that He abandoned me, and that I was alone. 

 Christmas of my freshman year, I began recieving texts from people that went to the church I belong to. Someone had put me on the prayer request list at church. I asked my mom if she did, she hadn't. Neither had dad. No one seemed to know who did it. The following Sunday, I asked my family to go to church with me. That was the start of the best chain of events that could happen to me. 

 Now I go to church every Sunday. God is the center of my life. He is my whole life. I just wanted to say thank you, to whoever put me on that list, you saved me. 

Lucky.

 Have you ever thought about how amazing it is to be alive? I don't mean that in a cheesy, you only live once kind of way, or a judgmental kind of way. (Like those people when you complain about your bad day remind you someone has it worse than you. I get it. Doesn't mean mine didn't suck.)  But really, we are LUCKY. The universe is huge. Vast. Infinite. We don't even know the extent of the universe. There are 7 billion people in this world, and you are one of them. There are around 100,000 genes in the human genome, and yours came together just right to produce what we know as you. You wouldn't exist without your parents--both of them. Or their parents. Or grandparents. Or great grandparents. The stars had aligned just right for them to meet, and thank God for that! You are made up of millions of atoms. Which are made up of something even smaller, quarks. Your body functions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Your heart pumps blood throughout your body hundreds of times a day. Your brain is sending a mass amount of synapses to allow you to read this. You are perfect. You are designed in His image. You are a masterpiece. You are lucky. I don't mean for this to sound sappy, but you really are blessed. God wanted to give you a chance to live on this earth. The second greatest gift to you, other than Heaven. You are 1 in 7 billion. 1 in a 100,000 combinations. You were wonderfully and fearfully made. Never forget that life runs out. It's an hourglass super glued to the table, with the sand running through it faster than we know. All too soon we will just be footprints on the sands of time. You are lucky. You are an amazing creation. You are you-- the best you in the world, and the best you that ever will be.