1.  you're entire family will one day consist of just one person - yourself.  No one tells you this until after it happens. And when it does, everything that you thought you knew, doesn't make sense anymore.  No man is an island until he becomes one.

2. My dad used to say all of these really great things when I was a kid that I wish I could remember. I'll know my name when he calls it. I hope I will know.

3. Am I supposed to consider myself lucky because I'm a first generation? Because my ancestors weren't stolen and sold? Because my parents chose to come here? Weren't deprived of their identity? Because they were educated?  Am I allowed to grieve my peoples tragedies? Can I call them my people even though our great grandmothers didn't go through the same struggles? Some would say no.

4. College is ******* expensive. I'm already broke and I don't even have my first degree yet. It's almost starting to cost more than my ambition. Might need to take another loan out.

5. Ever since I was too young to fully comprehend the finality of death, that people can suddenly cease to be, she taught me while teaching herself how to live without him. She never taught me how to live without her because we both thought that she wouldn't have to. Now I'm teaching myself to live without them and we never thought that I'd have to. Will I have to teach my kids one day how to do the same? I pray to God that I wont have to.

6.( Invincibility doesn't mean **** when you see it die in front of you.) I still use the present tense when I say your name. My mom says that, sorry I meant used to say that all the time. My dad is really, sorry I meant to say was really tall. Life's constant grammar lesson : past tense - a tense expressing something that previously existed.

7. Alcohol is your friend until it's not. People are the same way, except they are harder to find on a daily basis and you can never run out of alcohol.

8.  I have a habit of calling wherever I'm going home. If I'm laying my head down there for the night, it's home. Because for me it's always temporary and somewhere different. I'm never homeless.

9. We are supposed to trust no one, but love with all of our being. You can't do both. Pick one.

10. You're family will one day consist of just one person - yourself. No one tells you until after it happens. And when it does, everything that you thought you knew, doesn't make sense anymore. So you start over.