1. Be thankful for the two people who gave you life. Your bones are the very product of their union, your breath a reminder they succeeded. Your body is a map of cells, your moral compass; inherited. Till this day, true north is a sharp point of a finger in your direction, saying no to a tattoo, but swallow your pride although it is really just the DNA you share and
be grateful. You never know relief like the kind that washes over you when you're safe within the confines of your father's car, succumbing to slumber as you lie slumped, cheek pressed against a seatbelt, drool staining the herringbone webbing a muddy brown. He insisted he send you despite being 8 in the morning on a Saturday; mind you, his only day to sleep in. And
mind you, trains begin operations at 6am where you live. Some days, you'll lose patience at your mother for the gravel in her voice. You've barely said four words and the asphalt is bitter on your tongue. Swallow it nonetheless, because she is always trying. Always trying to look past her daughter's insistence on spending a night at a club in the midst of people who are really just buzzed-out boys but they're a pack of wolves to her, always trying to look past her husband's inability to maintain a proper conversation, always trying to lend a spark to a burnt-out flame of a 30 year old marriage. And we all try to a certain extent and then we fail. In that event, stroke her hair and hold her as she shakes. She was the one who taught you that even the strongest fall sometimes. She was the one who taught you how to walk in the highest stilettos and then over all the men who tried to wrench you to your knees, but if you looked closely, there were tears in her eyes as she spoke.
2. Always remember that friends aren't only your friends when you're hanging out with them. If you have time to think of a way to squeeze your daily and not to mention
trivial woes into a 140-character tweet, you have more than enough to drop a quick text to an old friend, or even one you caught up with last week. Friends are more than just faces to crowd your timeline with. Friends are your lifeline. When was the last time you said
how are you? and meant it, when it wasn't just a prelude to your onslaught of complaints about your life and problems. Friends form a support system, not an assembly line. They listen and they say some of the smartest things sometimes. They're not just there to inhale all your dirty carbon dioxide. Today's weather is partly cloudy with an air of fake camaraderie.
3. Keep in mind that nothing lasts forever. Forever is the 21st century form of pixie dust which is really just gold glitter. It's pretty when it's dancing in the air, just an idea bouncing around in our heads, and then it settles and it gets all over our hair, in our eyes, matted on our fingertips. You really don't want anything to last forever, anyone with sparkle in their samosa would tell you that. Nights when you find yourself in pugilistic position from the scathing words of somebody, balling your fingers into tight fists because then, only then could you hide the trembling, remember that the fire subsides in the end. Ash can only harm what was once ash for so long. Whatever conspires between two people, the searing heat of two tongues swirling together, under or above the influence, the whiskey wears off eventually. Live in the moment. Each goodbye is only a means to a new hello. Tell your lover you don't love him forever, you love him for as long as it is possible. For as long as you are able to have it course through your veins for what it is. That is the longest forever you could ever give somebody. Just make sure it isn't to somebody hell-bent on reducing a heartfelt declaration to an
ily, just make sure you remember you cannot measure every life-altering phenomenon against a scale of 1 to infinity.
