10 Lessons You Cannot Teach

We teach our children and students the lessons that you can learn in a school format, but I think we all know there are some lessons that you wait for kids to learn out in the real world.

1. Some people you can’t trust about anything.

2. Some people you can trust absolutely, but not about the things you think.

3. Only you know what you really love enough to give up things other people never would.

4. The way you find peace and comfort in the face of terrible things is likely to be unique, as well.

5. The heart-stopping feeling you get when you almost died in a car wreck can be the most wonderful thing in the world. It reminds you of all the good things about life, and yet it’s nothing that you would make anyone else live through.

6. You need sunlight, human company, and sleep. In what proportion, I don’t know and can’t teach you. You’ll try to skimp on all of them until you realize you’re doing it wrong.

7. All that stuff you wish you had, all those people you wish you were—they’re nothing like you think and you’re most likely happier without them.

8. Being happy is precious, and it is often fleeting. Hold onto it while you can.

9. Good food and friends are the only wealth that anyone really cares about.

10. Figuring out who you are is something that happens every day when you look in the mirror and put on the face you’re going to wear.