My Journey Around the Sun

I just finished a book called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.

I will confess—I read this because a dear friend thrust it into my shaking hands a few weeks ago and said, “I picked this up at Costco. You should read it.” To which I replied, “I don’t have time to read books right now. I haven’t really read anything all year!”

Steph said, “Fine. Just read the ‘A Note to the Reader.’ It’s only a page.” I took the book from her and stuck it in my purse.

A short side-note about my purse: Stuff goes in and rarely comes out. So I carried this book around in my purse for a better part of a week—rooting around it to find car keys, my phone, lip gloss, Altoids…you get the idea.

And then at some point I had a few minutes, so I pulled it out and read ‘A Note to the Reader.’ And then I read ‘Getting Started.’ Then ‘January,’ ‘February,’…you get the point…until before I realized it, I had finished the entire thing in a weekend. More or less.

This post really isn’t about this book, although it was very good and I will need to obtain my own copy after I return this one to my dear friend.

Ms. Rubin has a list of what she calls “Secrets of Adulthood”—lessons she learned with some difficulty while growing up.

So although I don’t think these are necessarily “Secrets of Adulthood,” here are 38 things that I have learned on my “journey around the sun," thus far:


1. Always say “May I please have _______________.” and “Thank you” when ordering food. You may be the first person a waiter or waitress hears this from in his/her day.This is also a big hit in the college cafeteria line.

2. And the corollary—tip 20%. The hourly wage for waitstaff is disgusting.

3.The days are long, but the years are short.

4.A vowel in a closed syllable is short; a vowel in an open, accented syllable is long.

5.It is called heartbreak because that experience causes the organ that pumps the blood to your body to feel an actual, physical, stop-your-breath kind of pain.

6.You will remember the times that you were punished unfairly for something you didn’t do. However you probably won’t remember near the number of times that you should have gotten busted but didn’t.

7.It is easier to remember information that has been put to a song.

8.There is a fine line between waiting too long to take care of something and “jumping the gun.” Both are bad practices.

9.There is healing power in tears.

10.There is healing power in laughter.

11.A negative number multiplied by a negative number is a positive number.

12.Most things taste better if they are homemade from scratch. Brownies just might be the exception.

13.Emulating Christ and being a Christian are not necessarily the same things.

14.Fostering a love of reading in children pays big dividends.

15.Make sure you have a couple of friends who will tell you the hard things and will call you on your crap.

16.Smile with your eyes. Share your smile with others. Often. Never underestimate the power of a genuine smile.

17.Feeling like you’ve been picked last for the kickball team is just as painful at 37 as it is at 7.

18.Your taste buds will change. I have come to love sweet potatoes, eggplant, Brussels sprouts, and a well-made sage and onion stuffing. I now detest Maraschino cherries, Cool Whip, blueberry pancakes, and (sorry, Mom) peanut butter and apple jelly sandwiches.

19.Always have a sweater, an umbrella, and an ice scraper in your car.

20.It is possible to love someone and not like them very much.

21.The opposite of love is indifference.

22.Multi-tasking isn’t as effective as it appears to be.

23.Once fat cells are created, they are always there…even after you lose weight. They just become “skinny” fat cells—waiting for junk to fill them up again.

24.Your metabolism will slow down. You won’t always be able to eat junk and never exercise. Prepare for this by fostering healthy eating/exercise habits when you are young.

25.Don’t expect it to last forever. Everything ends and that’s okay. And it’s okay to celebrate even those things that end.

26.If you pour Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup on someone’s car windows, it will ooze down into the door mechanism, and every time the windows are rolled down or up, chocolate will smear on them.

27.Reading Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day after a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day does make you feel better, whether you’re 3…8…or 38.

28.Writing “wash me” on a dirty car with your fingers causes the tiny particles of dirt to act as a sand paper of sorts and permanently damage the finish of the vehicle.

29.Words in the English language don’t end in v. The “e” at the end of “have” isn’t there to make the vowel long. It’s there to keep the word from ending in a v.

30.Recreational companionship is a basic need of most men in a relationship.

31.Children can tell when you aren’t really listening to them.

32.People don’t want my opinion nearly as often as I want to give it to them.

33.Vodka + Kahlua = a very nice “after five” drink.

34.It is possible to run 13.1 miles and actually enjoy it.

35.Once you complete a task in a relationship, it becomes your job. Exercise caution when completing tasks in relationships. :o)

36.It is easier to obtain forgiveness than it is to obtain permission.

37.When human beings behave badly, that behavior is almost always driven by fear, hunger, or exhaustion.

38.It is a woman’s prerogative to change her mind. Because really, that prerogative belongs to everyone.