Helloooooooo! I’m officially 19 years old today and boy, am I loving it?! On the 18th of August, 19 years ago, a gem was born! I am grateful to God for yet another year and I am grateful to everyone that has made life a pleasant and fun experience. Since it’s my birthday today, I’ll be sharing 19 things I have learnt in 19 years. Here are 19 important lessons I have learnt in life!
19 Things I Have Learnt In 19 Years
1) People treat you the way you treat yourself: This is one of the most important lessons I have learnt in life, and in all my years of living. To be honest, people treat you the way you treat yourself and give you the same vibe you give yourself. If you treat yourself like you are not good enough, people will treat you like you aren’t good enough but if you portray confidence in yourself and your abilities, people would be forced to believe in you and your abilities. I treat myself like a queen because I believe I am a queen and I want to be treated as one.
2) Self love is a necessity: The importance of self love can never be overemphasized. While self love is a term we are all familiar with, we don’t practice it as much as we should. Most times, we get so entangled and wrapped up in work, school and every other thing that we forget to take care of ourselves. Self love is important and should be practiced as often as possible. I try as much as possible to squeeze self love and self care into my daily routine because in the end, I matter. Time taken out for self care no matter how small is important.
3) Spend time with people you love: Make time for people you love. Never let anything make you too busy for those you love – family, friends and everyone who means something to you. Life is too short to ignore those you love. Create time for everyone that’s important to you, your mum, (I wrote a letter to my mum, you can read it here!) dad, siblings, aunties, uncles, friends,etc.
4) You can do whatever you put your heart to: This is one of the most important lessons I have learnt in 19 years. A lot of times, we feel like there’s a particular milestone we can’t cross or there’s a particular thing we can’t do. But, here’s a thing! Nothing is impossible if you put your heart to it. You can climb the highest mountains and swim the deepest oceans if you put your heart to it.
5) Not everyone is going to like you: This is one thing everyone needs to know. Not everyone will like you. No matter how nice and kind hearted you are, there’ll still be people who dislike you and you know what that’s fine! You can’t be in everyone’s good books. The fact that someone doesn’t like you doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. It’s just life… No one is loved by everyone.
6) It’s important to be kind: There’s billions of people in the world with different problems. Being kind to someone can make their day and give them a reason to want to go on with life. People have different struggles some of which you might not know and being the least bit nice to someone can go a really long way. The world can make do with more kindness so do your best to spread kindness and cheer everywhere you go.
Keep reading: 19 things I’ve learnt in 19 years
7) Challenges aren’t always bad: Now you may have given this a second read to make sure you are reading correctly lol but yea, challenges aren’t always bad. In fact, challenges are good and if we look back, we would realize that the challenges and tough times rather than the easy moments shaped us into the person we are today. I would say younger me used to run away from challenges but I don’t run away from challenges any more. Challenges help us discover talents we never knew we had, they help us be more confident in our abilities and so much more!
8) Not everyone and everything is worth your attention: This is one of the most important lessons I have learnt in life. This is important for me because, I always feel the need to respond to everything. I don’t like getting trampled on tbh. Sometimes, people do stuff to deliberately annoy you and get a reaction from you. Sometimes, they are just haters who want to do everything to ruin your happiness.
And while it’s good to let people know that you won’t have anyone treat you like crap, sometimes, it’s just best to ignore and let them continue making a fool of themselves. Like a popular adage says “Silence is the best answer for a fool”. Sometimes keeping quiet and ignoring things doesn’t make you stupid. It just means not everything and everyone is worth your time and energy.
9) It is important to cut off toxic people: There should never be an excuse to keep toxic people in your life. Toxic people can be anything from family to friends and even best friends. Often times, we find it hard to do away with some toxic people because of the relationship we have with them and their place in our lives.
Sometimes, cutting off toxic people can be as hard as decluttering sentimental items but the truth is if you want to be able to be your best self, you need to cut off toxic people. By keeping toxic people in your life, you are not only destroying your happiness, you are also not putting your wellbeing first. It might be difficult to cut off toxic people but it’s worth it!
10) It is important to spend time with yourself: Being able to spend time with yourself is important as hell. There are lots of benefits of alone time. Spending time with friends, and loved ones is important but also spending time with yourself. I love spending time alone with me and my thoughts and I wouldn’t trade alone time for anything in the world. Alone time boosts my creativity, it helps me clear my mind and it’s a great way to practice self love.
11) Surround yourself with people who motivate you to be the best version of yourself: The kind of people you surround yourself with has a considerable impact on how far you will go in life. Surround yourself with people who push you to be your best.
12) It is important to journal: For me, journaling is therapeutic. It has a lot of amazing benefits. Journaling is a great way to let it all out. It helps clear my mind, helps me remember things and it boosts my creativity! Also, life happens and it happens fast. Sometimes, it happens so fast we can’t keep record of everything. Journaling helps keep memories. I love journaling and journaling helps even on days where things seem quite upside down.
Keep reading: 19 things I have learnt in 19 years
13) You will lose friends and that’s okay: It’s completely normal to lose friends. The fact that you are friends with someone today doesn’t mean that you’ll be friends with them forever. I don’t talk to quite a number of the friends I had in secondary school and that’s not because I have issues with them. Somehow, communication ceased lol. I think it’s quite normal to have some friends only in certain phases of your life. You’ll lose friends in your journey of life and that’s okay. Not all friendships last forever. Life goes on….
14) It’s no good comparing yourself to others: Comparison is the thief of joy and you should never compare yourself to anyone. Everyone is running a different race and everyone has different timings. Comparing yourself to others wouldn’t do you any good. It’ll only make you feel like you aren’t doing enough meanwhile you are doing just fine. Stop comparing yourself to others. Live your life at your own pace. Do not be bothered by what you see. Move at your own pace. You are doing just fine.
15) There will be hard days but you can get through it: Life doesn’t come without challenges. Life isn’t all roses and there will be days where everything seems to be crumbling and that’s okay. Things will eventually get better and everything will fall into place at the right time.
16) Live your life to please yourself: See, people are going to judge you no matter what. So live your life for you. Do what makes you happy. Do not please anyone at the expense of your own happiness. You only have one life to live so make sure you do you!
17) Don’t take things personally: It can be hard to not take things personally but it’s important to note that not everything is about you and most people are struggling and dealing with unimaginable things behind their smile. Let go!
18) Let go and Let God: God does have your back more than you know and more than anyone can. Surrender to him and make him an important part of your life.
19) Never give up: In conclusion, never give up! Keep chasing your dreams. You’ll get there. Rome was not built in a day. Never give up on your dreams. You can do it!
Round up
And yeah! These are 19 things I have learnt in 19 years. These lessons I have learnt in 19 years will stay with me forever. As you live life, you continue to learn and these are some important lessons I have learnt in life. What important lessons have you learnt in life? I’m really excited for today yea! I can’t wait to have a blast. 19 Never felt so good haha.
A very happy birthday Ruth! I had my 19th birthday many years ago! and I wish I knew as much as you do when I was that age! I love the advice. Enjoy your birthday!
In my first few years of life, I learnt that the majority of people will hate you simply for having the wrong skin colour. Moving to more multicultural areas changed that though, fortunately.
Firstly, Happy Birthday, I hope you’re having a lovely day! And secondly, I love this list, so many truisms here, and my favourite is don’t take things personally. Hard but true, thank you! x
You’re wise beyond your years for 19! Self love has been a task for me as I’ve grown into adulthood but it’s such a key part of my own happiness!
Rosie
Happy birthday! My 19th was a lonnng time ago now 😂 but I hope you celebrated in the best way. These are some fab lessons and thoughts and I definitely think as you grow older too a lot of stuff you used to worry about just disappears. I agree though spend as much time as you can with the people you love, love yourself and live life for you. Some days will be hard but that’s how we learn and grow. Life is not easy but being in a community of people we love helps!
So many great lessons, it’s wonderful that your years have taught you so much in such a short space of time. Thanks for sharing!
Happy Sweet 19, Ruth. Wish you good and keep up the good work. You’re awesome!
Wow, you have learned so many things which I never did by the time I was 19—happy Birthday, by the way. I’m very impressed by your article there are a lot of things which have made me think. You have written so much that I will have to bookmark and keep re-reading 🙂
Happy Birthday!! What a great list of 19 things – my favourite is not everyone is worth your time, I learned this the hard way in my 20’s and it was a great lesson to learn to put your energy into people who matter and respect you! Hope you have a wonderful day – thanks for sharing.
Love all of these! I totally agree that self love is a necessity!
First off, happy birthday! Second off, knowing that people/things aren’t worth your time is so important! It took me a while to learn just to turn your back on things that don’t matter to you. Thanks for sharing!
Alexis| http://cafe-beauty.com
Happy Birthday Ruth! You are wise beyond your years to have figured out these 19 lessons (well before I had)! I hope you have a very special birthday 🥳
Happy birthday Ruth 🎂!!
I wish you all the best! Take care of yourself and you will be the queen of you life forever 💖
I really liked your post! So much wisdom in just 19 years of life. The world is yours girl! Love you 😙
Loved reading this and still happy birthday! You have learned so much and so many lessons I only learned recently, so it’s great to see that you managed to learn these much earlier! Learning to love ourselves and spending time with loved ones are so important x
I hope you had a great birthday lovely! I love all of these lessons you have learnt in your 19 years of life! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Happy Birthday! Everyone is not going to like you is such a good lesson. I learned that when I was about 21. I remember being a people pleaser and just realizing people will treat you what ever way they want no matter how kind you are.
Happy Birthday. I love reading these types of posts. You’ve learnt so many good life lessons.
These are some great life lessons! Especially the first one, it’s really resonating with me! You’re right, we’re queens and should be treated that way! Thank you for sharing x
Happy birthday!! I hope you had a lovely time. These are some brilliant lessons – self-love is so important x
In just only 19 years, you have a wise understanding of life. That’s something to be proud of. Happy birthday!! I’ve had to learn not everyone is going to like you & to be ok with it. I tried holding onto friendships for the sake of the history when in reality, they needed to go. Here’s to another amazing year for you & many many more!
Happy Birthday Ruth. I hope you had a good one. These 19 lessons for a 19 year old as incredible. I must say you have learnt a lot at this tender age. Wish I knew them when I was 19. All the Best to you.
Wishing you a very happy belated birthday! Wow, I wish I had known some of the valuable lessons that you have learned, when I was 19. I think the hardest one has to be you will lose friends, you never think you will until you’ve noticed a prolonged time without speaking to them. Valuable lessons indeed and I’m sure these will help many! 💚
Happy birthday! You’ve got some really great points here, I definitely wish I’d realised that losing friends is completely normal earlier on and to just do what makes me happy and live for myself. Thanks for sharing x
Loved reading this! I wish I had such a wonderfully mature and optimistic perspective at your age. It will serve you so well. I can’t wait to read more of your writing xxx
Happy Birthday! It’s amazing to see how much you have learnt in just 19 years, I’m the same age and I definitely haven’t learnt this much. 🤦♀️ I totally agree that self-care is a necessity though 🙂 x
Happy Birthday hun. Loving your super wise blog post. Thanks for sharing 🥳
This is such a wonderful list. I’m happy that you’ve learned so much at a young age. These are really important points that I didn’t discover until my 20s. Thank you for sharing and I hope you had a wonderful birthday!
Happy birthday! I always love posts like this – you’re so right that cutting off toxic people is beyond important.
Happy Birthday! These are all very important lessons, I related to so much of what you wrote about. I hope you had an amazing day too! I wish you nothing but the best for this year and beyond! 💕
I hope you had a lovely birthday! These are such important life lessons! Learning not everyone is going to like you and accepting it is one of the biggest things to learn and overcome, but when you do it makes life so much less stressful!
Happy birthday, Ruthie! These are all great lessons 🙂 Especially the importance of self care and not beating yourself up if not everyone likes you!
Happy Birthday Ruth🎊 definitely all of the above. But most importantly love yourself and don’t give up on your dreams!
Love,
C ☕️
Happy (Belated) Birthday! Reading all the things you’ve learned over the 19 years of life you’ve recently celebrated on August 18th is incredibly encouraging as I know plenty of people (probably myself included) that didn’t come to understand these integral life lessons until much later in life — which is okay too, but if you can get to these when you’re younger I think it really sets you up to tackle anything. All of these points will carry you through and be an opportunity for such great growth, always keep on learning and celebrating your existence!!!! Too many of us think we should be quite about doing that but it’s a wonderful thing to do. I hope you had a fabulous birthday!
Happy belated birthday! My nineteenth birthday was only a couple weeks ago, so I loved reading this and experiencing some of the lessons you have learned in your 19 years.
Not beating yourself up if not everyone likes you, practicing self-love, and setting your heart toward the life you need are three things I connect with most!
Thank you so much for sharing!
Happy belated birthday lovely, I hope you had the best day! I absolutely loved reading this post and everything you’ve learnt. It’s amazing how much we grow as a person the older and wiser we get. xo
Ah hope you had a lovely birthday! Honestly, cutting off toxic people as you get older is so important and one of the best things that happened to me! xx
I hope you had a great birthday!! And I was nodding my way through a lot of this list, so much of this rang true, and I didn’t figure quite a lot of this out until I was in my 20s. Learning that sometimes you lose friends and there isn’t always a reason can be such a hard one to wrap your head around x
Happy (belated) Birthday!! 🙂 I love all of these lessons! They’re so true! I’ve been journalling since I was 9 yrs old and so agree it’s really worth doing. I love going back and reading my really old journals to see what I’ve learned 🙂