The truth of us

All the people who feel like they are chained here thinking that their reputations matter and this little shit and that little shit matters are so freaking shortsighted. Dude, what matters is that you're happy. What matters is your future. What matters is that we find happiness in life together. What matters is finding the truth of our own lives, not caring about what other people think is the truth of us.

What you need

You’ll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips. Airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs, but people more than anything else. You will need other people and you will need to be that other person to someone else, a living breathing screaming invitation to believe better things

If

If you are going to fall in love with me, it's only fair that you know what you are falling in love with. You are falling in love with my insecurities, you are falling in love with my immaturity, my constant need to feel loved and appreciated, my overactive tear ducts, my internet obsession. you fall in love with my troubled past, and my hopes and dreams, and how im a hopeless romantic at heart. If you fall in love with me, you fall in love with my self hate and all my imperfections. But, you are also falling in love with the way my eyes will smile when I see you, the way I'll text you in the mornings just telling you I hope you have a great day. you are falling in love with the occasionally and/or thought-provoking things I say, and the way I blush when I think about you, or the way I wont be able to stop touching you. but to me, the most important thing will be that you are falling in love with me, despite my thinking that it is impossible.

 Name ten things you wanna do before you die and then go do them. Name ten places you really wanna be before you die and then go to them. Name ten books you wanna read before you die and then go read them. Name ten songs you wanna hear again before you die, get all of your friends together and scream them, because right now all you have is time but someday that time will run out. That’s the only thing you can be absolutely certain about. Think of all the things that are wrong with your life and then fix them, think of all the things that you love about your life be thankful you are blessed with them, think of all the things that hold you back and realize that you don’t need them, think of all the mistakes you have made in your life, make sure that you never repeat them because right now all you have is time but someday that time will run out. That’s the only thing you can be absolutely certain about. Name ten thousand reasons why you never wanna die, go and tell someone who might’ve forgotten try to list the endless reasons why it’s good to be alive and then just smile for awhile about them, soon the sun will rise and another day will come, soon enough the sun will set, another day will be gone and right now all you have is time, but someday that time will run out. 

I want to know everything

I want you to tell me about every person you've ever been in love with. Tell me why you loved them, then tell me why they loved you. Tell me about a day in your life you didn't think you’d live through. Tell me what the word “home” means to you and tell me in a way that I’ll know your mothers name just by the way you describe your bed room when you were 8. See, I wanna know the first time you felt the weight of hate and if that day still trembles beneath your bones. Do you kiss your friends on the cheek? Do you think that anger is a sincere emotion or just the timid motion of a fragile heart trying to beat away its pain? See, I wanna know what you think of your first name. And if you often lie awake at night and imagine your mothers joy when she spoke it for the very first time. I want you tell me all the ways you've been unkind. Tell me all the ways you've been cruel. And if you don’t believe in miracles, tell me, how would you explain the miracle of my life to me?  And if you've felt denied, denied by who[m]? I wanna know what you see when you look in the mirror on a day you’re feeling good. I wanna know what you see in the mirror on a day a day you’re feeling bad. I wanna know the first person who ever taught you your beauty could ever be reflected on a lousy piece of glass. If you ever reach enlightenment, will you remember how to laugh? Have you ever been a song? See, I wanna know more than what you do for a living. I wanna know how much of your life you spend just giving. And if you love yourself enough to also receive sometimes. I wanna know if you bleed sometimes through other people’s wounds. And if you dream sometimes that this life is just a balloon that if you wanted to you could pop—but you never would because you’d never want it to stop

How to be a better person in 2014

1. Learn to be okay with not being okay.

2. Learn to have conversations that do not consist of lambasting someone else, especially when that someone is you.

3. Give the most kindness to those who seem like they least deserve it.

4. Learn to define and describe people without initially reaching for their sex or appearance as key adjectives.

5. Realize that perspective determines everything.

6. Understand that when something upsets you, it’s striking a nerve of truth.

7. Understand that when someone upsets you, the best thing to do is understand where they’re coming from.

8. Know that no matter how far you’ve come, there’s no point at which it’s appropriate to remain sedentary.

9. Be radically, sincerely honest. Be shocked at how deeply you can connect with people when you are.

10. Know that if you want to have a conversation about something that upsets you, insulting someone is only the by-product of your own defenses, and will ultimately raise theirs as well, not open lines of understanding and communication.

11. Realize that selflessness is one of the most predominantly wonderful qualities a person can have.

12. Learn to actually feel happy for other people.

13. Go into everything with the knowing that you don’t know it all, and that every experience is valid.

14. Invest in extra linens, donate what you don’t use, and keep extra Tylenol on you because people tend to need it and be without it rather frequently.

15. Call your siblings more.

16. Be present in what’s at hand. You owe it to the people in your life and to the things you’ve built for yourself.

17. Understand that letting go and moving on means very humbly and slowly gesturing in the direction of which you’d like to reach.

18. Get dressed everyday, just for yourself.

19. Give better goodbyes.

20. Carve out time to do nothing but be with yourself.

21. Boldly make yourself your first priority. You’ll do everything better when you do.

22. Stop shaming yourself for doing things that are perfectly, normally human, but happen to be deemed imperfect in society.

23. Read. A lot.

24. Reach out to people, open your heart, and watch how eagerly they jump in and do the same

Do something once a day that scares you

Found this video years ago but to this day every time I watch it I still get chills. Take his advice.