Thursday, January 21, 2010

Life Lessons

Taylor and I grew up with some great one-liners.

If you wear too much makeup you look like a clown. You can love someone and have to let them go. Nothing good happens after midnight. If you're gonna be stupid, you have to be tough.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the things I want to teach baby. Granted most of these lessons won't come until much later in life, but I've been quite philosophical on what I've learned to be a better person (and what I'm still working on).

Among the first life lessons for baby: just own it. That is, don't make excuses for your behavior. Stand by your decisions, be authentic, and apologize when necessary. Don't lie to make yourself look or feel better. Stay true to who you are and how you choose to act. Just own it.

I'm guilty of telling little white lies. Most are small, like saying you hit traffic when you just left the house 15 minutes late. Most of the time I lie to avoid judgement or disappointment. In the moment, a lie to save face seems easier than admitting the truth.

This past New Year's Eve is the perfect example. My friends were curious why I wasn't drinking, and I wasn't ready to tell them that I'm pregnant. I kept going to the bar and ordering things that might "look like" actual drinks. I failed miserably and every time I tried to tell them it was alcohol, they'd call me out on it.

Now granted, I was trying to put on the charade because I wasn't ready for the world to know (or guess) about baby. But I would have saved myself a ton of grief (and embarrassment) if I would have just said, "Nope, not drinking tonight, but still having fun."

Stand by your decisions, be authentic, and apologize when necessary. Don't lie to make yourself look or feel better. Stay true to who you are and how you choose to act. Just own it.

I'm learning. After all, life is a work in progress.

6 comments:

  1. I feel like I want to print this out and post it on my fridge.

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  2. Speaking on one liners, wasn't Francie the one who said "If life hands you lemons, stick them in your bra" ?

    I've LIVED by that one (though found it was important to pick similarly sized lemons....)

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  3. Sam, you are going to be an amazing mom. Love you.

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  4. Can we also please add "We don't hit!" That one has stuck with me. Can probably start telling baby that one the soonest too... even though I got it when I was... mmm... about 16 years old.

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  5. I had found out over Christmas as well. For New Year's I told people that I was on a medication that I couldn't drink on (which was true, don't drink with prenatals) because of girl parts. Their minds go UTI, and you never lied!

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Thanks for reading!