32 Life Lessons In 32 Years

photo by author

I don’t feel any particular way about turning 32. The significance of age is a cultural construct and 12 month periods are an arbitrary way to organize a life span.

However, birthdays are an opportunity to reflect and reassess. I can’t say with any certainty that I’m better than I was at any previous point in my life. I can say with some certainty that I have more experience with being a human in the world, which has led to a greater understanding of how things work, at least in the contexts within which I’ve existed.

I don’t always take my own advice on all of these points. They’re mostly guidelines on what I’ve found to be true, even if applying them doesn’t come easily. Most of these also aren’t original thoughts. In fact many are somewhat cliche’d wisdom that have taken years (over 30 of them) to fully sink in.

1. Holding a grudge is pointless, and not just for the obvious reasons. Aside from the person who hurt you not being impacted by or even aware of your rumination on your resentment and hatred toward them-if they did know, they probably wouldn’t care. I spent years dwelling on my anger toward an acquaintance who caused me so much pain, and was so unbelievably cruel to me and others. I finally wrote her a strongly worded email, detailing how much harm she had caused. She never wrote back, likely because she did not fucking care. Most…