I’ve learned lots of things in my short lifetime. I’ve learned important lessons and silly little things that I probably won’t remember in the next 10 years. The important lessons will help me later on in life when I have a difficult choice to make. Also I’ve learned not to stress over making a tough decision, because what’s meant to happen, will happen.

I’ve learned that sometimes doing the difficult thing isn’t always the easiest. In most cases it’s easier to make a smart choice. It’s not always easy to make yourself do your homework or get out of bed so you can go to work. But it will pay off in the end. You’ll earn a good education or you’ll make money so you can have some support. It may be more difficult, but the smarter choice, is to do both simultaneously. Get a job while you’re in high school. In doing so you’ll have a glimpse at what real life looks like. It’ll make you a better person, and when you go to college, you’ll be more likely to get a scholarship than the kids who didn’t mature and get a job. I’ve experienced that it takes work to be successful. College takes a lot of time away from your schedule. For some people college is easy, but for most it’s very stressful. A job takes effort. You have to devote your time into your job; you arrive early, you approach your customers with a smile, and serve them with respect. You focus all your energy into being the best employee you can be.

I’ve learned that everything comes with a cost. Whether it’s that every time you get hungry, the food costs money. Or when you become attached to someone, you risk the chance of being hurt by them. What you’re responsible for is if or when you let them exert control over you. Every little thing comes with a cost. Sort of like the butterfly effect. You may not think that shoving the plastic bag out the window of your car is going to hurt anything. But the wind might carry it to the ocean and get all of it’s bacteria in the ocean. Or an animal might get its head caught in it and not be capable to get out. Every little thing you do always has an effect on something.
Another thing that I have learned is that you needn’t worry, because every little thing is going to be alright. Don’t fret or sweat. Anything that happens, happens for a reason. Sometimes I stress about school work. Occasionally, it pains me so that I am unable to focus on anything but. I attempt to finish my work, and if I succeed, the pain diminishes. Eventually, I’ve proceeded to care less about putting so much importance on each assignment. My teacher always tells me, “You’ve putting way too much thought into this”. Natalie Goldberg once said, “Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency.” This quote is actually very true. When I’m stressed out, it’s about more than one thing at a time. Somehow I always find several things to stress about. Though a hard lesson to learn, life is always easier when you aren’t stressed.

Life throws everything it can at you. What happens in the end is for you to decide. You can either learn from it or let the world rule you. You can decide if you want it to make or break you.