Introduction

This introduction won’t be a classic one. I won’t tell you something about myself other than as I am writing this book, I am still a learning and growing teen who just happens to be more mature than others in her age. That’s it.
The idea for writing this book came to me when one of my dear friends told me that she admires my wisdom and mindset. It wasn’t something new to me, honestly. I’ve been told that countless times. But something inside of me clicked that day. Wisdom should never be kept to oneself. It’s cruel.
And it goes against the saying “Learn from other’s mistakes too, not just your own”, which has become one of my mantras over the past few years.
OK, I lied, I’m actually telling you more about myself right now than I intended to in the beginning. But it’s alright. I want to you to understand where I and this collection of lessons came from.
I didn’t develop the mindset of doing, failing, learning and moving forward overnight. It took me a lot of mistakes and situations to realize that there is something beautiful in just accepting that some things don’t work out because they aren’t supposed to work out. They are supposed to teach you something. I made mistakes over and over again, never wanting to see the point of the repetitive outcome. Sometimes, those mistakes were insignificant, like forgetting my shoes when going to practise (happened once and never again because from then on, I always double-check if I’ve packed them), other times, my mistakes involved almost setting a rug on fire because I set the hot flat iron down on it and went to the bathroom because I had to pee. Luckily, my father had noticed the smell before anything bad could happen. I also almost got run over by a car because I hadn’t looked left and right beforehand.
My life has always been filled with lessons, whether I knew it or not. Even if I chose not to learn from them they were always there. And if I didn’t get it on the first try, God made damn sure that I would eventually.
While I’m writing this book, I’m continuing to learn every single day. It’s what makes me, all of us, grow and improve. And this is something we should strive for. Nothing and no one ever stays the same and it’s our decision if we want to grow and move forward, or waste our time trying to stay the same and eventually realize that that’s not possible.

I for a fact know that this book will change you. You have the opportunity to learn from my mistakes and experiences without having to do them on your own. You will know better than before. You will probably relate to a lot of stories, emotions and quotes. You will have a book filled with advice you didn’t know you needed. You will have a collection of things to remember. You will have something to laugh at, something to talk to others about and something to read more than once.

This book is completely raw and unfiltered. It makes you know me better than others may do. And this is why this introduction isn’t about me. This book is. Those 111 lessons all have meaning and even the number of them has a meaning itself, was a lesson too. And if you want to know what it was, I’d say you turn the page and start reading – start learning – now.