25 Things I Wish I Knew About

Today I had a lot of boring classes. I usually like my one law class but today it was pretty boring... and then I got out early and could bring myself to study for my exam in one hour so instead I spent a lot of time looking at blogs, getting ideas for a revamp of this blog, and looking at tutorials.

At EVERY single blog I went to, there was a post like "Things I wish I knew before getting married" "Things I wish I knew about college before that thing" "Things I wish I knew about coke before drinking a lot of it"... you get the gist. And I thought HEY internet. I have a blot too. Why don't I have a things post thing? So here it is. 

The 25 things I wish I knew about. 

There are so many things I've learned since doing things that I wish I knew about before doing, or that would have been helpful before doing or would have been motivational and blah blah blah... College, relationships, health, life, EVERYTHING. I'd be writing these list things for the rest of my life. So here you go world. The 25 things I wish I knew about in general. 

25. I wish I knew that if a professor is rated almost entirely bad on ratemyprofessor.com, he's probably a bad professor, and no amount of left over high school gusto will get you through that class in one sane piece. 

24. I wish I knew that I ALREADY had a tub of sour cream in the fridge. I wouldn't have bought this one. Along with that, I wish I knew it was expired before topping all sort of meal-things with it. 

23. I wish I knew that marriage isn't about making me happy, or him happy or any of those fancy things that people talk about. Maybe I don't KNOW what marriage is about right now, in fact, that's entirely likely. I haven't even been married a year. Who am I to give advice? What I know about marriage is that Joseph and I liked each other and figured life would be a whole heckuvalot more interesting if we were in it together forever. So far? Check. 

22. I wish I knew that, like an object in motion staying in motion, shoes that get wet will remain wet through the rest of the day. So no matter how cute those shoes are, if it's raining and you don't want wet feet, suck it up and put on the wellies. 

21. I wish I knew that you can buy textbooks from places other than Amazon for a lot cheaper. And I wish I knew that you could sell them back to Amazon for a lot more money than you bought them. 

20. I wish I knew that professors don't define me. That one bad class doesn't have to change the schooling career and that bad experiences can be moved on from.

19. I wish I knew how easily bad memories can be replaced. I don't know why this took me one Christmas break and a kind mom's texts to realize, but bad memories, hurtful memories, grudges, harsh feelings can be replaced. You can't just delete them from your brain because something has to take up that place. Might as well be memories that you like. I wish I knew that it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to do this, all I had to do was start really focusing on what was really important to me. 

18. I wish I knew that leopard geckos need heat, food and water to live. Good thing Joe figured that one out.

17. I wish I knew that moving isn't such a big deal, and all it takes is a bunch of boxes, a bunch of muscles, and a bit of time and maybe a lot of frustration and a few tears. But when you move and get it over with, it's pretty nice and wonderful. 

16. I wish I knew that I could do hard things when it came to physical activity. Running hard makes me sweat and makes me breathe really fast, but I can do it. Walking up a flight of stairs makes my muscles scream but I can do it. 

15. I wish I knew exactly how long it would take me to write this long list. 

14. I wish I knew that studying isn't that bigga deal. It takes a bit of time each day to save you a lot of time in the end, and maybe save you a grade in the end. I wish I knew what a sucker procrastination was and I wish I killed that beast a long time ago. Who knows where I'd be now.

13. I wish I knew that the awkward email exchanges between some facebook fantasy man would turn into a marriage. I would have jumped on that a long time ago. 

12. I wish I knew that my parents were right about mostly everything they were telling me as a teen and young adult. I wish I listened to them long before I did. But I guess I'm glad things worked out the way they did too. 

11. I wish I knew that all I had to do was keep my phone charged in over night and it would actually work. 

10. I wish I knew that I could do hard things. That I could take a lot of hard classes and have a lot of work and still be ok. 

9. I wish I knew that with a concentrated effort, I could fight off a cold instead of lying down and letting it walk all over me while I moaned in misery. (Tip: DoTerra OnGaurd, vitamin C, glass water bottles, chicken soup, and a whole lot of water.)

8. I wish I knew that there were sharp pencils sticking out of my backpack before thrusting my hand at it so hard. I probably would have far less scary scratches on the back of my hand right now.

7. I wish I knew not only how important it was, but how good it would make me feel to keep up to date on my scripture study and other gospel study. I wish I would have spent less time watching silly cats on youtube and more time learning more about my religion and trying to be a better person. 

6. I wish I knew how far more important it was to spend time with my husband or with whoever I was with in the moment... more important to focus my attention on loved ones than to let my mind wander on the internet. I wish I spent less time blogging and more time with my husband, honestly. That's why so much blogging happens at school now! During boring classes. Boring classes are not loved ones. 

5. I wish I knew that I could go without shampoo a long time ago. My hair would have been a lot more forgiving through those hard years.

4. I wish I knew how little it matters what I think of myself. I wish I knew how much my Heavenly Father thinks of me, how much my family thinks of me, how much my husband thinks of me. I wish I knew that in the end, my own opinion of myself didn't matter because there's a reason I'm here, and being sad about myself does not accomplish anything. 

3. I wish I knew that when my friend was depressed, I should not have suffocated her with happiness and things like "You just need to try to be happy!" I wish I knew the exact words that would have helped her, or maybe I wish I would have known that simply saying nothing was the best. 

2. I wish I knew what my passion was a long time ago. I wish I would have dedicated many more years of my life to helping children. I wish I knew that the sweet kids in my life who drove me crazy were just trying to figure themselves out and maybe all they needed were some encouraging words and some friendship from a figure of authority. 

1. I wish I knew how much a life can change in a few words exchanged over an alter. I wish I knew fully what I was getting into when I agreed to marry Joseph. I would have said those words a lot differently, with far more love, devotion, and reverence. Life is still changing and I wish I knew exactly how much it would change. How it would change for hard and for good and how hiding and pouting when good times go hard does nothing to make the hard times good. I wish I knew that no matter how many of these lists I read, there is still so much that I don't know and that years from now there will be a hundred more things I wish I knew. Maybe I wish I spent less time reading these lists and more time learning.

Ohhhh. Burn.