Ten Truths

1. Few people will understand. Insofar as is possible, keep those few who do close, for with each one you will be less alone.

2. Family is not forever. When you are a child, you belong in your family. As you grow up, elders die, divorces happen, people start their own families, and the infrastructure you grew up with develops necrosis, breaks away, and, ultimately falls down. Rely upon the family you grew up with alone, and you will become a lamented interloper, on top of being a sad old prune.

3. Starting your own family is the only alternative available to those experiencing dissatisfaction with your own. Whether it is divorce, questions of character, or whatever it is that may bedevil your relationship with your family to the point you may not take solace in them, starting your own is the only redemption you'll ever have a chance at. Find a mate that relieves your worst fears and embodies your favored virtues. After that, make your own rules.

4. You have to stop doing the things that are supposed to make you happy and start doing the things that actually do.

5. You will always face hostility and people trying to bring you down. The question isn't whether you can get along with people or even where you can fight back. It's whether you can take it.

6. There are some things you actually can't do. Remove yourself from situations that require you to do these things.

7. A lot of those fancy European pastries are a lot of work for something that doesn't taste very good. Go have a simple brownie and spend your calories a zillion times better.

8. If you live somewhere that loves and accepts you, stay there. You'll spend years crawling your way back otherwise.

9. There are some things in life you must be unwilling to compromise on, no matter how steep the price. Then again, sometimes you'll learn you don't have to make the sacrifices you thought you would.

10. Working out legs hurts worse than working out any other part of the body. Easily.

-Frank