A question that's now answered !

Around the same time last year, someone had asked me , "If there was one thing that you could change in your life, what would that be ?" At that time, inspite of 100 things that had gone wrong, I couldn't think of anything, which kind of meant that everything was just almost perfect ! Well today, to answer the same question, I would like to change the way I lived the entire 1 yr, back from today's date. I have learnt so many things from life, probably even more than what I had learnt in all the 23 yrs before that ! Just like a crash course on so many things...At the same time last year, I did not believe in any of these, but now I think they are the hard facts of life. To summarize a few,

1. Never trust anyone completely, not even yourself.
I did believe I could always trust some people, trust myself, my inner voice, my intuitions. But none of this advisable to do.

2. If a person says something, it does not necessarily mean he/she means it, so its better to believe in actions than in words.
I always believed words very so very important. I always believed its more important to say a word to show care, even if a friend actually did not manage to do something that he/she promised.

3. Time and money are the most important things we have in life, think twice before spending them for ANYONE.
I always believed in spending time and money for everyone whom I know, that good things done for someone never go unreturned, that going out of way and doing things for people is what is most important and gave me the most satisfaction.

4. Miracles never happen !!
This is the greatest paradox, at a point of time you may feel that something is going so much the way you wanted it to go, without you taking much efforts for it. This is exactly when you start believing in miracles, but after a while you will realise that it was all nonsense, and miracles are never meant to happen..

5. Just like you love and care for many people, it helps to hate some people too.
Till today I was never able to hate anyone, whatever they had done to me for whatever reasons. Though I did not believe in the word "SORRY", I still had no hard feelings against anyone. But I think, everyone cannot be liked, and those who cannot be, should be disliked.

6. Everything in life, without any exceptions, is a function of NEED.
No one does anything unless he/she has his/her own purpose behind it. I always believed there existed people who did things selflessly, without any hidden intentions. Fortunately or unfortunately I still have some people around me who prove this one wrong, but I think 99 percent of the time its true.

7. The extent to which someone can hurt you depends entirely on you.
I always thought life should be an open book, and heart should be like an unshelled coconut. But its more worthwhile to have a shell around it, so as to not make it vulnerable to anyone around you.. This shell should be so strong that only you should have the right to break it.

And the list goes on ! well inspite of the fact that I learnt so many things, had so many bitter and sweet experiences in the past one year.. I think they were too expensive for me to afford, in terms of my time and my self respect, and I am going to have a hard time getting both of these back !!!!