California Sunset / Photo by Nate Sanchez

I don’t love getting older. But one good thing about having passed a certain number of decades is that you become much more confident about certain things. Here are a few things I’m finally old enough to know. …

• Patience is truly a virtue – and one of the best ones to get you through life. Patience can make you a great parent and a great spouse.
• Respect is the key to every relationship. Respect your spouse. Respect your kids. Respect your coworkers. Respect the guy who pours your water at the restaurant. If you project your respect with honesty and sincerity, it comes back to you tenfold.
• The way you talk to your kids when they’re young (yelling or not, swearing or not, with patience or not, with respect or not) is exactly the way they’ll talk to you when they’re about 13. And then forever after.
• You can’t be everything to everyone.
• It’s okay to say no.
• It’s important to learn what your boundaries are and then set them early in every relationship, from friendships to work.
• Childhood friends are to be cherished. No one will ever know you better than your childhood friends. You were your purist, un-formed self with them.
• Everyone has obstacles in life. Never assume you’ve had a harder day or a harder life than the person standing next to you.
• You never regret a family getaway.
• Getting out of your own neck of the woods – for even just a day or a night – reminds you of how big the world is, and how people live differently than you. Not better or worse, just different. It makes the world open up, and then your mind.

What about you? What’s your favorite thing you’re old enough to know?