I was going to write a post, a collection of things I have learned in 31 years, but in the end they all boil down to this:

Never, ever, in your entire fucking life be afraid.

Do not be afraid of trying something new. Never be afraid to make your hobby your life.  Never be afraid to give up an entire life and start a new one.  Never be afraid to leave. Never be afraid to hand over that passport and get on a plane.  Never be afraid to get a degree in something ‘impractical’. Never be afraid to open up your heart.  Never be afraid to tell the truth. Never be afraid to speak up. Never be afraid to stand up for things and people and animals that you are passionate for. Never be afraid to hold your breath and take a step off the ledge.

I grew up dirt poor, with a dad who didn’t want me, with a Mom who barely had a high school education who loved me but almost couldn’t feed us half of my life.   I dropped out of college to chase after a boy.  I’ve had men degrade me, sexually and physically since I was five.  I had a  baby when I was too young.  I thought sensible degrees would make me happy.  I left home and failed and left home and failed again.  I’ve had .35 cents in my bank account for weeks and it took me almost 25 years to even have a savings account.  I’ve been lost in foreign countries with nothing but a backpack and pairs of creepy men on my tail.  I’ve been cheated on, lied to, ‘owned’ by people who said they loved me.  

And I survived all of that. I will still survive it.  I live through the nightmares and I get up every morning and I still keep putting one foot in-front of the other—I keep moving forward.

So if you ask me what the biggest thing I have learned in so many years of being alive?

It is to never be afraid of anything.

Unless it is a lion or a bear or a T-Rex or something.

Then you should probably maybe play dead or punch it in the face and run or something like that.

But all the other stuff? All the things that aren’t lions and bears and Great White Sharks?

Look them right in the fucking eye and don’t you dare, don’t you dare, look away.