Oh my lord this is a doozy. I’m fifty years old now. The number of things I wish I had learned earlier in life is way greater than one. Thing is, I’m not sure I could have learned those lessons earlier. I’m a big believer in the fact that you just have to experience certain things and live through them in order to learn from them, so I don’t know that the really important stuff that I know now that I wish I knew then really would have sunk in before I was ready.
If I had to narrow it down to one thing I wish I had learned earlier in life, though, I think it would have to focus around accepting that I’m enough. That I’m a human being who doesn’t need to be better than anyone else to be worthwhile. That it’s ok if what I consider to be a good life doesn’t match up with anyone else’s. That just because someone doesn’t like me or want to be part of my life that doesn’t make me a bad person. That I don’t have to be the most attractive, interesting, successful person in the room to justify being in it. That if someone thinks that I’m boring that’s based on their world view, not mine. That it’s ok to just be me.
Thing is, I’m still learning that lesson.