First thing, out of everyone that I grew up with I'm the only one "still going." I grew up with about six people that I always hung out with until I was about thirteen and drifted away from them.

All of them being at least two years older than me. All of them dropped out. One of them is in prison for grand theft auto and assault. One of them is a meth addict. Another works at KFC, doesn't have a drivers license, and has a baby. One of them plays computer all day, does drugs, and never leaves his house. There's more, but I don't know enough about what all of them are up to be certain as to what they're doing. My point is that any of these people could have been me. I grew up with them, hung out with them everyday, and did everything they did for seven years. I'm not exactly sure what I did different then them, but I did something and that one something is why I'm writing this and not in prison or doing meth right now. Little changes now can lead to huge, important changes later. Keep doing what you think is right and if it is it will work out for the best in the future.

 Next thing. keeping your head up is really hard sometimes. The fact of the matter though is, if you want to be able to make it through anythings that comes at you, you need to. Being pessimistic about everything will get you nothing except loneliness and a tumor. Bad things happen to everyone.

It's knowing that they're temporary that separates the happy people from the sad. I don't think  that I've ever met anyone with worse luck than myself, but I'm still okay most of the time and do

what I can to make myself feel better. Wallowing in your self-pity until people say nice things and feel bad for you might make you feel better, but it's going to change how people think about you.

If you need other peoples praise to feel better they're going to know that you're weak, can't do what you need by yourself and that you need attention to feel alright. The main point of the paragraph:  Know in your head that everything will be just fine.

 Third part. Be okay with yourself; physically and mentally. This is definitely something that I could work on. I think the first part of this is accepting whatever flaws you may have. I'm not 

going to say the ridiculous "your flaws are what make you special" line. Because flaws do not make you special. They make you imperfect and less appealing to the eye. It would be great if everything about me was perfect, but it isn't. So you need to know that what you have is good enough and be satisfied with it. Improve what you can and know that anything can be worse. The other part is liking your personality. I think most people that have bad personalities don't have a problem with it, so I'm not sure how to go over this. If you actually care about how you act and

feel bad about however you act, you're probably over analyzing every minute detail and I'm sure you're good. Point of this third paragraph: Like everything about yourself.

 Next. Don't worry about everyone liking you. There is not one person that everyone likes. I know it's hard to believe, but even Harry Potter has some naysayers. Say what you think and do what you like, and you'll attract people that mesh well with you. If people end up not liking you in the process...kill them. Haha, not really. But just don't waste your time thinking about the people that don't like you. You're not going to go anywhere with them and you'll be better off with whatever people that come to you. This whole paragraph could be put into a Bayside quote. "I'll be who I want to be, so think what you want of me." Main point of the paragraph: The people that like you without your going out of the way for it are your best bet.

 That's the end of my little "wise words with Dylan Carlson" segment. Maybe I'll do some more another day. Those are just the main things that I've encountered in the past week or two. Also,

 I am coming up on to fifty entries. I decided that on my fiftieth entry I'm going to post a song that I will write with only stuff taken out of my blog posts. It should be fun to reread everything so that I can get all the material that I'll need.

P.S.

My computer is telling me that my last name is spelled incorrectly. wtf?

Oh and in case it doesn't tell you this is post 47...I think.