45 Points of Life

Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio
To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.
It is the most requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:
 

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything..
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time..
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young..
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Vaada na tod ...

This is something which I don't like but I keep on doing this... Breaking the promise :( ...

 

Now being a person with good analytical skills, If I find out why does this happen then the reason is ...

 

- I am always ready to help others. I always tell others if they can use any oppotunity I am aware about. So I tell them, and promise them I will help you.

- I have too many things runnng in my mind .. I have poor time management and I am too lazy to act on something immediately.. So i keep on delaying the things and then once a week or two I decide the priority of all pending tasks .. I almost forget what I promised to other people during prioritization.

- I am afraid to tell them the truth that I actually forgot or I didn't care what I promised to you. I sometimes don't want to say "Sorry" also, because it could give an impression on others that I didn't keep my promise intentionally.

- One more reason could be, because I want everyone to be happy and sometimes its not possible to do that.

- I don't want to loose my friends by saying "NO" if they ask for my help. Even that thing is beyond my reach. So I just say "OK, I will try" and then pretend to forget. I am not adopting the habit of saying "NO" ..

Thats what I am called ...

Nicknames ?? Yeah, I have many ...

 

Hemant, what I am actually ..

 

Tailor, my surname and mostly called by customer care representatives .. mr. tailor ..

 

Rinku, what my family and relatives call me ..

 

Shekhar, its actually my elder brother's name. But one of my school teacher "MP Varshney" used to call me by this name. We both studied in the same school and Varshney sir has a habit of calling younger brothers by their elder bros' name. Strange na ??

 

Tani, thats what my school friends call me .. now how did i get this name ?? I was in 6th standard and we started learning Sanskrit. Our Sanskrit teacher Pawan ji used to ask me to recite the sanskrit lines most of the times... Reciting "Falaani, Taani, etc ...", my friends started calling me "Hemant-ani" , which were later changed to "Taani" ... :)

 

Hemu, well, I never liked this nick since i read the story of war between akbar and hemu. Hemu was defeated in that war and how wants to be called by a loser's name ?? lol, this nick wasn't much successful and hardly someone new call me by this name for the first time .

 

Tailu, the nick I have been called mostly. I got this name in my college .. Tailor was trasnformed to Tailu , no doubt .. I am still not able to recall who called me by that name for the first time .. my seniors who loved me, they called me by that name .. and all my classmaters, batchmats and later even my juniors .. It shows their love to me .. and thats why it the best nick i had ..

 

Kaka, Anurag saxena, one of my batchmate started calling me "Tailu kaka" , and later only "kaka" .. don't understand the reason , but we both call each other "kaka" ;) ..

 

Taylor, and thats my surname changed by foreign agencies.. Bank of america dispatched me my check card for 3 times with this surname and that was the reason i didn't get them any of them .. I now take precaution when i call customer care and tell them to repeat my surname in case they have spelled it wrong .. and yeah, they all have spelled it wrong till today ...

 

Sailor, pummy doggy aka yashu dani is the only one who call me by that name ..

 

Herman, well, I still can't understand what gives my customer this impression that my name is "herman" and not "hemant" .. i think they shud get their eyes checked because they have problem reading "m" .. funnier is when they consider me female and use "she" in their mails ..

 

Hermant, thats another irritating name, I got my company ID created by this name with my recent client .. I have already got it changed but still there are some stupid fellows using this nick .. :(

 

Gold, strange ??  yeah, Hemant -> Hem -> Gold .. Thats what I used for the first time as nick when i started chatting .. Its not being used anymore now ..

 

Choorma, and thats another tashani name .. Choorma is a Rajasthani sweet .. When choorma is prepared, the roti is crushed .. and the same way i used to crush my opponents with my rocket launcher in computer game "Unreal tournament" .. I always used this player name while playing "UT" .. my fellor UT players know me by this name .. I love when opponents said "Ohh my god, Choorma is here .. somebody save me .. " .. ha ha ha

 

FatBoy Slim, Thats actually a famous music band and I used it as my player name while playing "Counter Strike" , another computer game ... Listening to Fatboy slim's songs, it was fun to play that game .. also it had been very lucky for me most of the times. ..

 

Chhote, Ramteke, my classmate use to call me (or evrybody) by this name .. and i replied "haan bade" .. :)

 

Hemanth, Hemant-wa, Hemant-sa ... Given by my fropki friends .. Don't know what made PU feel that i hate "hemanth", she always called me by this name and showing ":P" emoticon ..  Well, there is another story behind "Hemanth", being in south india for almost 6 years, my name was written as "hemanth" most of the times .. obviously they have "srikanth, ananth, kavitha, anitha... why not hemanth" ??

 

Hadd hai na ??