Found this at Subversive Harmony. I like the way this girl has decided to look at the world.

*You’re not really as awkward as you think. Or if you are, other people are just as awkward, so it doesn’t really matter.

* It’s a pretty safe bet that you do/think/like things that other people don’t do/think/like. This makes you interesting, possibly a little eccentric, but not a two-headed alien.

* It’s not constructive to clam up in a corner. You’re not rude if you talk. You’re not even rude if you talk to someone first.

* Stubbornness is a gift. You were stubborn enough to walk to three grocery stores looking for your canned sweet potatoes, and you found them. Be too stubborn to think going to events is useless.

* Do things you enjoy because you enjoy them, and enjoy the things you do on their own terms. Anything else is icing.

* Remember how much better you did with finding a job and an apartment when you set aside the desperation, listened to your instincts, took your time, explored a number of options, and didn’t take the first offer you came across? You think maybe that might apply to other situations?

* You know how you said you didn’t need to try things to know if you’d like them, and then you let yourself be talked into trying them and had fun despite yourself, even if it still wasn’t quite your bag? Remember that. You know how you didn’t like all those different foods when you were a kid but for some reason tried them again recently and changed your mind? Remember that, too.

* On the other hand, if it’s not fun, and honestly not fun, there are other events/groups/activities out there. Life’s too short to waste time.

* Rumination is both your friend and your enemy. Probably more your enemy at this point.

* Que sera, sera.

Why didn’t someone tell me these things a decade ago?

I particularly like “anything else is icing”. Why do we insist on having such high standards for ourselves? What do we get out of it except a constant feeling of inadequacy? My husband occasionally reams me out for possessing higher standards against which I judge myself than those standards by which I judge other people.

The other important one is “life’s too short to waste time”. That means staying in that soul-crushing job, not-destructive-but-certainly-not-constructive relationship, that cruddy apartment may be gaining you a few cents here or there, but being miserable (or even neutral) hardly balances the gain. Be happy. It’s better for you in the long run, and probably the short run too. Really.