7 Key Life Lessons I learned in my late teens and early 20s.

A self-reflection of a few things I have experienced in the last few years. As I turn 23 in a few months, also in few months, will be entering into a different phase of life, the end of student life, college days will be over, and hence, time of behaving and acting in ways that resemble mature professionals rather than being immature and naïve, time of becoming self-dependent and many other responsibilities are awaiting ahead so I realized it would be an opportune time to look back at the years gone by where I encountered myriad of emotions and walked into some unknown paths.

I would love to share key life lessons I learned in my late teens and early twenties.

How others judge us is not our concern. We will not satisfy everybody in any case.

I spent my teenage years and early twenties stressing over others’ opinions and what they said about me. But, further down the road, I understood that it could possibly influence me in the event that I permitted it to. What others say or consider us is an impression of them — their qualities, assumptions, instabilities, and principles — and has nothing or very little to do with us.

Say NO when you don’t feel like it.

I’ve spent my whole life as of now saying yes to things even when I don’t like them just for the sake of others' happiness. But, seriously, just don’t do this. Secure your space, time, and energy, and spend them on things that lift you up. Life is excessively short to simply accept circumstances for what they are and attempt to fulfill everybody aside from yourself. Know your needs, and then decline things pleasantly. If those individuals care about you, they will understand.

Your Mental Health is very important.

I’ve been an introvert all my life which definitely has demolished my mental health. It sometimes led to dark nights of noiseless cries and no sleep, with that shy heart caged behind the bars of insecurity and fear. Remember, you are not always going to be happy. You will not get up each day feeling motivated and inspired. There will be days when you’ll feel like crap. There will be days you will not be glad about your life. And that is absolutely OKAY! This is why you need to maintain a good relationship with your mental well-being. Visit a therapist, and take a break if it will help you feel better about yourself. Your mental health is important as your physical well-being.

Invest less time looking at the screen.

At the point when you are old and grey and think back on your life, you’re not going to regret not watching every season or episode of ‘The Office (great show, however), or missing doing some activity on your social media accounts. Instead, you will wish you invested more time and energy with individuals you do and doing things you’re enthusiastic about. Get outside and invest time with individuals you care about and be available with them. Don’t only record your life, be available to encounter it.

Loving ourselves is difficult.

It’s hard to make sure to love ourselves when we are attempting to sort out what our identity is. It might sound cliché, however, tell yourself that you love yourself. I wish to improve myself a lot in this part. Regardless of whether others don’t, make sure to adore yourself first. Life is short, spend it loving yourself regardless of who you are and how you look.

You just can’t force friendships.

I have the feeling that life and along, various relations change complexly after a specific age or time. We love flaunting and cherish our numerous friends. As we grow up, every one of those friends transforms into a mere acquaintances. We begin running towards our life and career. The reason sometimes why I feel Friendships are overrated. You will meet different kinds of friends in all stages of life but literally, you just can’t force friendship or a bond with each one of them. Some of them will stick, some may not and it's nobody's fault, it’s life. People will come and go and that’s okay!

Social media is just an illusion.

It associates us with the world greatly. However, it is inherently toxic. We’re at a point in life where we are stuck to posting only the positive sides of our lives. And we constantly compare ourselves to others. The less time you spend on social networking sites, the better off you’ll be.

Odds are that when I’ll be turning forty, I’ll look at these lessons from my late teens and early twenties and think that I had no clue about life or whatsoever. And that’s fine. The only constant is change. I can’t wait to see what my late twenties and thirties will teach me and what person I will become by that time.