23 at 24

On my 24th birthday, 23 lessons from My Year of Becoming

1. If you buy a table and chairs off Craigslist, make sure it comes with the screws that hold it together. Otherwise it will not hold together.

2. The hardest part of practicing yoga is showing up to class. That, and resisting the urge to drop hundreds of dollars on fancyyogish*t at lululemon. An expensive tank top will not make you able to do crow pose. For 89 dollars, that tank top better make me effin fly.

3. "The price of adventure is loneliness." -Robert Bruce Hope IV

4. You can get a parking ticket in a parking lot in the city of Chicago. Especially if there is a really large sign that says, "PAY TO PARK" above the spot where you park your car.

5. It's really hard to tell someone that you're just not that into them.

6. Often the dreams we have for others aren't their dreams. Sometimes those dreams are meant for us. I often told Michele he should start a blog. Really, it seems it was I who wanted to write.

7. Wish success for others passionately and often. All competition comes out of our own insecurities.

8. I can parallel park like a boss now thanks to an argument I had with Anna Reichert.

9. You can decorate your roommate's rowing machine for just about any festive occasion; Christmas lights look great on the Concept 2.

10. Join a bank that serves free coffee at it, preferably if it is adjacent to your home. Ration your pay and make small deposits every day. Enjoy your morning joe. It's sorta like paying for coffee, except you get to keep the money.

11. "As actors, we audition for our careers, not for a job." -Katie Hartke

12. "To be great, a writer must write through both inspired and questionable impulses.... The reckless reach of Tennesee (Williams)'s many works remind me to sit my ass down and work, no matter how afraid I am that it might not 'turn out good.'" -Lisa D'amour

13. Sometimes an entire island of traffic is at a standstill just so that you will miss your bus because someone is running late on a train to kiss you goodbye. Without all the delay, he'll never make it in time.

14. If you have the choice to stay at work or go to a waterfall, always go to the waterfall. You never know who you might see naked there.

15. You can bake cookies in a toaster oven. Anna Pahomova taught me that.

16. Gregory Corso to Patti Smith:
"Poets don't finish poems, they abandon them," and then he added, "Don't worry, you'll do okay, kid."
I'd say, "How do you know?"
And he'd reply, "Because I know."

17. Although I am lonely, I no longer fear being alone.

18. "I am inviting you to cultivate a special kind of receptivity-a rigorously innocent openness to experience that will allow you to be penetrated by life's beauty with sublime intensity." -my CityPages horoscope

19. Strangers will shout things at you, especially in a big city. You have the choice to ignore these things. You don't have to "Go F*** Yourself" if you don't want to.

20. "You know who is more beautiful than you, Maura? My mom! She has really great skin and I love her hair." -Vivien, age 4

21. "Pretend like every audition you do happened a hundred years ago... that way if you don't get it, you think, 'Who cares? It was soooo long ago.' Then when you get one, you'll be like, 'I can't believe I got that! I did that audition 100 years ago!'" -Vaishnavi Sharma

22. If you are going to flash someone outside from inside a bar, make sure the glass isn't highly reflective... otherwise, you will effectively flash the whole bar.

23. Love. Love yourself and the god within you first. Then love those around you, love those that need your love, love those that don't know that they do. Love your mom and pop. Fall again in love with those that already love you. Love the life you are given and you never know what you will become.

Here's to my 24th year, title unknown. And here's to you, dear reader, for coming along for the ride.