26 taught me:

1. People want to be validated, to be  heard, to be SEEN. Worse than hate, is being ignored. Is not existing. See people, even if it causes you discomfort. Listen, even if you don’t want to hear it.

2. Growth sometimes requires discomfort and pain. I have never grown more than through heartbreak and heartache. Take the traumas I’ve had and revel and be grateful for them because they’ve taught me more than any professor or any book or any Ivy League school. 

3. You also grow through joy, through love, through connection. You don’t know what you don’t know. And when you meet someone or feel something you never thought possible, it changes the way you perceive the world forever. You deserve to be happy, everyday.

4. Ivy League schools ain’t shit. The brand of Columbia doesn’t translate to people that are better, more woke, more intelligent. Look past the pedigree, and gauge people for who they are as a whole.

5. You don’t have to be friends with everyone. It’s okay to say, no. And you don’t have to stay friends with everyone. It’s okay to let people go, and it’s okay to step back from relationships that drain you or bring you down. It doesn’t make you a worse person. It makes you someone who loves yourself.

6. People will show you who they really are, let them. They’re on their own journey to find their truths. If it doesn’t align with yours, that’s okay. Find peace with it, forgive anyways, be compassionate anyway. They don’t all have to be your best friends. Some people are better for certain roles in your life. Let them. 

7. When you find the gems from the rocks, keep them. Invest in them. Love them and help them grow.

Diamonds are forever.

8. Realize that people will never meet your expectations. You yourself will never meet your expectations. Unconditional love is not having any expectations, it’s supporting someone else even if it makes you uncomfortable. It means supporting yourself for not being perfect.