Then and Now

As I have changed, so has my writing. I found this buried in my ipad notes from last year. I remember how blissful the morning was. I was cozy, comfy at my favorite coffee shop.

Leather hands and cautious words defined my childhood. Living without the benefit of Dick Clark to guide my decisions in music or TGIF to fill my Fridays, I stayed inside my own head a lot. I hadn't given this much consideration in my twenties, I was way too busy drinking. But now, in the early days of my thirties, I am beginning to understand some of the choices I've made over the years. Some of them are intensely embarrassing, some are selfish, some are incredibly prescient, and some are just...bittersweet. With that being said, I am always trying to collect good ideas and thoughts. I know that my writing is very introspective and I know that I am prone to histrionics. Still...when my children go to college and try and forge a life for themselves, maybe they won't be as lost as I've been all these years.

 

So: good ideas and bits I've learned so far on April 20th, 2012 at 8 a.m. At Caribou coffee on Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh, NC.

 

1. The best way to identify your BEST friends is to find the people who not only listen to you, but also hear you. People who do more than sympathize and tell you what a shit the person who has upset you is...you want someone who will push you...call you on your mistakes and drive you to do and be better.

 

2. There is no place better to write than a local coffee shop with big, comfy, old leather chairs.

 

3. The best way to identify places in which you need self growth is to spend time in public listening but not talking. See number 2.

 

4. You don't have to always have the best story. Or the last word.

 

5. If you talk quietly, people will be forced to listen harder. Don't always talk quietly.

 

6. Yell when you have to.

 

7. Opposing views help you ensure you actually know what you believe. Seek them out.

 

8. The person you marry should be the person you would want with you the day you die. Not the hottest, not the sexiest, not the sweetest. The person who makes you better than you are alone.

 

9. You are never too old to fix a broken dream.

 

10. Do no harm. It's the tenet of the Hippocratic oath, but it applies all over. In all things, do no harm.