Hey guys,

So I wanted to see how many of you would notice if I didn’t blog last week, and since I was called out 23 times well I’m back. I would love to tell you everything I did instead of blogging but truly life just got in the way, and I needed to work on me a bit. So in the spirit of my birthday month, I thought I would make you a list of 24 life skills I wish someone would teach me before I turn 24.

• How do you wash, dry, and fold laundry all in the same day?
  • Confession: I hate laundry, it’s probably the reason I have an abundance of clothes, so I can put laundry off even longer. Even when I do laundry I’m going to forget a load in one of the machines and my laundry is probably going to sit in my clean laundry spot at the foot of my bed. I really hope I can master this adulting skill sooner than later.
• Organizing receipts for taxes.
  • I’m so good about saving my receipts from gas, to donations but when I say “I save” all my receipts I mean I keep them all and throw them in a canvas bin labelled “taxes” Does it work? Sure, it only makes me a bit of a psycho from January to April every year.
• Pre-planning dinner
  • I feel like most young adults my age are mediocre cooks, and not to toot my own horn, I feel like I actually have this cooking thing figured out. However, I don’t cook every night because I always forget to plan. So I either have to run to the store or wing it, neither is really efficient.
• Limiting your caffeine
  • Seriously, I feel like this is something I NEED to do, because at this rate I would have a streamline directly into my vein if it was an option. I mean I realize caffeine is the lightest drug around, but it’s an issue Oh well at least it’s not meth right?!
• Actually sleeping at night
  • I know I’m like a severe insomniac but how do you people sleep at night?! I’ve tried everything and still can’t successfully get it done. I was hoping it was a phase but I don’t seem to phase out of this bad habit.
• Best Cure for sore muscles
  • Is there ever a good cure for joints and muscle, or is my body just falling apart in my old age?
• Holding in laughter
  • Gosh, I can’t even begin to tell you the number of times I’ve busted out laughing at the wrong time. I get that I have a demented sense of humor but there’s gotta be a way to hold that in.
• Going out on appropriate days
  • At what age do you phase out of day drinking on a Tuesday, and limit yourself to Friday nights? I should probably find that age, but realistically as long as I can function the next day and get proper rest. Is this actually an issue?
• How to manage my time?
  • I mean this in a work life balance kind of way, but I don’t really know how efficiently I’ll be able to work at 3am forever.
• Stop creating awkward situations
  • For my friends that know me well, you all know I LOVE awkward situations. Why? It’s my way of reading people before I really get to know them. Knowing how someone reacts to a situation that’s a curve ball tells a lot about their character. However, there’s probably more efficient ways to accomplish this.
• FILTER.
  • Ask my family, and closest friends what a struggle this is for me. For those of you that watch Friends, have you ever seen the episode where Chandler tries to be nice and hold in his jokes? Yeah that’s me daily, it’s not that I’m trying to be mean but goodness I have some great one liners, and I don’t think I should hold those back.
• Publicly Read.
  • Truthfully I could BS in front of a crowd for an extended amount of time and not be nervous. As soon as you make me read in front of people, I have a meltdown get shakey, and I’ll probably start crying. I promise I know how to read, it’s just something I do quickly and I fear the crowd won’t understand me.
• How to negotiate.
  • I know what you’re thinking, Puerto Ricans love a good bargain, but I’m the worst at negotiating. I always worry I’ll offend someone by offering them less than they feel something is worth.
• How to speak another language.
  • I feel like Americans can be naïve when it comes to languages, and at some point in your life you are going to need to use another language. I need to take time to actually work on this.
• How to actually stick to a budget.
  • Alright, I’ve been working on this one but how is it you actually stick to a budget I write one and always end up having extra expenses. YIKES. But I promise I’ll figure this out in the next year, because as I always say, “financial stability is sexy.”
• How to back up my data.
  • I’m the worst at keeping my phones alive, and I never back up data. It’s been okay, but at some point this is going to bite me in the butt.
• Accepting a compliment.
  • I’m the worst, because I love to contradict compliments. This year I actually want to be able to just say thank you and move on.
• How to start a fire without matches
  • Boy scouts weren’t an option for me, but I feel like this may come in handy. Someday I’m going to get stranded and regardless of all my survival skills, I’ll probably freeze to death.
• How to avoid pressing snooze.
  • How do you guys wake up on the first alarm, it takes me 5 and that isn’t an exaggeration. I’m chalking it up to my insomnia, but realistically I need to get over this bad habit. The future Mr. Talkington probably won’t think that’s very cute at 5:00 every morning.
• Stop Overpacking.
  • I always overpack on vacation, it isn’t on purpose I just have a lot of cute stuff and what if my mood changes and I want to wear a different outfit. Also I swear I need all 8 pairs of shoes for a 3 day vacation.
• Fill a vehicle up before the gas light comes on.
  • Is this a woman thing or a me thing?
• How to ask for help?
  • I’m super hard headed and assume I can do everything myself. That’s not the case, ow do you ask for help without sounding desperate??
• Effectively make decisions.
  • You know what isn’t sexy, indecisiveness. No I still don’t know where I want to eat but I’m hangry and you better choose…oh, but not there.
• Learn how to relax.
  • I’m a little high strung, and I run on stress…this isn’t healthy. I need to figure out a better way to unwind, rather than letting it all build up.

 

There’s probably a billion other things that I need to learn, but I still have quite a few years and I plan on working on this slowly, but I have a starting point and that good right? If any of you have advice on ways to actually maintain these 24 skills I would love your input.

 

Until next time,

 

Me