30 lessons I learned in my 20's [top 30 list #6]

30 things I learned in my 20’s

1. How to survive a breakup.
2. You’re never too old to fall in love with a boyband.
3. How to drive.
4. The power of telling a story that can move people to laughter or tears.
5. Baby Whisperer est. 2008.
6. It’s okay to relearn everything about something you thought you already knew. 
7. Being a good listener is an incredibly rare trait and can be what someone needs the most.
8. If you spend all your time with someone, and you share your heart with them, you will fall in love with them whether you mean to or not. 
9. You’re never too old to go to a boyband concert.
10. How to manage a classroom.
11. It's okay to own up to your mistakes. Learn how to apologize and make things right.
12. The importance of surrounding yourself with people who make you laugh. Also, people who are excellent and provoke you to grow in excellence as well.
13. What it feels like when you reach milestones in your fitness journey.
14. Accountability is terrifying but invaluable and you only get out of it what you put into it. 
15. Sometimes friendships have seasons.
16. Biblical Greek.
17. How to do my taxes. 
18. Be intentional with your friendships. Take care of them. Be selfless and honest and celebrate who they are. 
19. I will be sentimental forever. It wasn’t just a phase, mom.
20. Some things that I thought would be important forever, aren’t important anymore and that’s okay. It’s called moving on, and it’s healthy. 
21. My siblings are my best friends.
22. Hard, diligent work produces the best fruit.
23. Crying is good for the soul. Pity parties are not.
24. What doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger. You get to decide if you grow stronger by becoming harder, or stronger by choosing to remain tender. 
25. How to start, finish, edit, format, advertise and self-publish a novel. 
26. How to ride a horse and a camel. 
27. Baby therapy is real.
28. God is always, always, always faithful.
29. Guard your heart. Protect it. Nurture it. Take care of it. That applies to your emotions, your body and your mind, as well.
30. Dance parties fix most problems. 

Top 30 movies [Top 30 #5]

Baylea’s Top 30 movies

1. The Two Towers
2. Tarzan
3. Les Miserables
4. How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days
5. Inception
6. Mary Poppins
7. Cars
8. Prince Caspian
9. The Emperor’s New Groove
10. Remember The Titans
11. Ever After 
12. It’s A Wonderful Life
13. Jurassic World
14. Frozen
15. Inside Out
16. Pride and Prejudice (1995 version)
17. Pride and Prejudice (Keira Knightley version)
18. Kal Ho Naa Ho 
19. Singin’ In The Rain
20. Knight and Day
21. The Bourne Identity
22. Main Hoon Na
23. 10 Things I Hate About You
24. Fievel Goes West
25. Dunkirk
26. You’ve Got Mail
27. What A Girl Wants
28. The Sound Of Music
29. The Return Of The King
30. Little Women

30 Things I Learned As A Teenager [Top 30 list #4]

30 things I learned as a teenager

1. How to be the oldest sibling at home.
2. What it feels like to live in another country.
3. That I was funny and likable. 
4. How to write songs.
5. How to journal consistently. 
6. How to journal incessantly. 
7. Arabic.
8. Quick and efficient typing. 
9. That I can have a crush on someone for 3+ years and not die, even though it feels like I am.
10. My own special code to use in my journal when I was writing in public. 
11. That people actually wanted me to be their friend.
12. What it’s like to hold hands with a boy who likes you.
13. How the right song can be exactly what you need to get through something hard.
14. To “Suck it up, Princess” and
15. “At least you don’t have a prolapsed rectum.”
16. That purity is rare, but important.
17. Physical location and age does not determine how close and deep my friendships have to be.
18. Bellydancing. 
19. That saying goodbye a lot doesn’t make it any easier. 
20. That the Shrek sound track is the best sound track to wash dishes to.
21. To not use too much thyme when cooking.
22. What a scary birth can look like.
23. What a home birth can look like.
24. To fall so irrevocably in love with a country and a culture that it ruins you for life.
25. YouTube. 
26. How to be a LOTR’s fangirl for life.
27. That I actually only love watching basketball and football (soccer) and all other sports are dead to me. 
28. That Settlers is the most complicated and not-fun game. The cutest boy I know tried to teach me how to play, and I couldn’t learn even for him, and that’s how I know it is the most complicated and not-fun game. 
29. Myspace.
30. Confessing your weaknesses/sins/shortcomings to others takes a lot of courage and sometimes your vulnerability is met with gracious understanding and sometimes it is met with the hard fast line of wrong and right, but regardless of the response, it’s still the right thing to do.