This morning at 7.53am I officially turned 19. In those 19 years on this little pretty planet I learned a lot of seemingly important things, which I'd love to share with you today. Here are my 19 'important' life lessons!

1: Fire is very hot and should not be touched
The first very important life lesson I learned was a painful one. On my first birthday my mom gave me cake with a candle on it. I liked the fire a bit to much and immediately reached out to touch it. Not a good idea.

2: Crawling backwards will get you stuck under a couch
When I learned to crawl, I wasn't a big fan of going forward. Going backward was much more fun. But when there were chairs and couches around, it wasn't the best way of transportation. I got stuck on multiple occasions.

3: Swimming isn't difficult
Swimming is the easiest thing ever, I discovered at three years old. I was capable of floating and paddling myself around for a meter or two at a time. I thought I was a great swimmer. My parents disagreed and made me wear swimming aids for years.

4: English is an awesome language
I wasn't even in kindergarten yet when I started learning English (which is pretty unique for Dutch kids), I loved learning new words and got overexcited every time I heard someone say a new word. To be honest, I'm still like that :P

5: Holes last longer than sand castles
As I said in my previous post, kindergarten was the only time in my life when I was popular. I ruled the sandbox and let the other kids dig the deepest hole we'd ever seen. Occasionally we built a sand castle, but those didn't last long. The hole, however, is still there, in the left corner of the sandbox of my old kindergarten

6: Books are the greatest invention ever
I learned to read and quickly got addicted. By the time I was six, I read ten books a week.

7: 'Made with love' is better than 'made by machines'
I spent the whole summer in the US when I was seven. My parents and their friends visited a ton of national parks and bought an official national park pass. My friend Cloudy and I made our own national park passes. To us, they were more beautiful than the original ones, even though they almost fell apart after that summer.

8: Teachers aren't always right
Not everything a teacher says is true, but they don't want to admit it.

9: Superhero stories are fun to write
I started seriously writing at age 9. All stories were about superheroes. At school I was always the first to finish all my work and in my spare time I was allowed to write. At some point I spent more time writing about superheroes than actually learning stuff. It was awesome.

10: Face the fact that cheese is the meaning of life
Kim Possible was my hero when I was 10. One of my favorite episodes was the one in which they travel through time and a bunch of naked mole rats ask Rufus what the meaning of life is. He answers: Cheese.
For years to come I'd ruin every attempt of having philosophical conversation by proclaiming that cheese is the meaning of life. My teachers didn't appreciate it, but it did make life a whole lot easier: at least I didn't have to worry about the meaning of life anymore.

11: Nasua are cute (and no one will believe you on that)
They're called 'nose bears' in Dutch and they're unbelievably cute. After seeing them in Costa Rica they landed on my list of favorite animals, but when I told people at home about them, they didn't even believe these animals exist!

12: In the end you'll always find the right people
Life isn't always easy if you're introverted like me. Making new friends who actually like you for who you are can take some time, but in the end you'll always find them.

13: If your entire class says someone likes you, it's probably true
I am really stupid when it comes to guys, but if 40 out of 50 people say a guy likes you (and they others think it but don't want to tell you because they know you'll freak out), they are probably right. In my case, they were very, very right.

14: Don't listen to country music when your heart is broken
When you get hurt, you need to find a way to deal with that pain and move on. I turned to sad country music, which is not the way to go. It only made me feel worse... So no country music when your heart is smashed to pieces!

15: City pigeons are evil
At this point in life, I started to go to the big city of Rotterdam every now and then. The pigeons there are of a whole different kind than the ones in my kind of rural hometown: they are way more evil. They will do anything to steal your food. This life lesson was confirmed once again when I was in Rome and a pigeon tackled my face...

16: Don't fall for guys just because they can have a Seneca Crane beard
One of the biggest mistakes of my life. I don't think this needs any further explanation.

17: Peruvian hats are the best
Seriously, they might not look awesome, but they're soft and warm and they look pretty cool on me, which is always good. They keep your ears nice and warm, they're simply perfect.

18: Don't put your phone on vibrate in class
Eventually I found some friends who thought I was interesting enough to text all the time. I had my phone almost always on vibrate, which I forgot one day when I put my phone on my desk in class. A friend texted me, the teacher noticed (it was impossible not to notice it) and I had a lot of awkward explaining to do...

19: Online friends are just as valuable as real life friends
Over the past couple of months I've had the chance to become increcibly closewith some of my blog buddies. I always laughed at the people on Catfish, but now I understand how much you can care about people you've never met. My blog buddies are the best, they're always there for me and helped me through some tough times. They are just as amazing (maybe even more amazing) as friends I met in real life. #spacepoliceradio, thanks for being there and thanks for being awesome!

Those are the 19 important things I learned in my life. What would be on your list of important life lessons? Let me know in the comments and have some cake to celebrate my birthday!
Stay Awesome!