If you have even a modicum of wisdom, you can spend your entire life learning, and never get any closer to the attainment of all knowledge. The self-absorbed, the small-minded, and those who are so incompetent that they don't realize they are incompetent are the ones who cease to learn when they leave the classroom environment. If you are spending any time reading this, you at least have the curiosity to keep looking for knowledge, so that keeps you in the learning crowd.

There are things that I learned at an early age, for which I am grateful.

• Crayons, while brightly-colored, have an unpleasant aftertaste.
  
• There is nothing wrong with an afternoon nap now and then, provided there isn't something really interesting going on at the time.
  
• Chocolate is not only an effective stimulant, but it is also legal for use at any age.
  
• If you have no friends where you are, you can always make some more.
  
• Everyone has been picked last for a team at some point in their life.
  
• A good laugh with someone you love is better that just about anything money can buy.
  

There are also, unfortunately, some things I wish I had never had to learn.

• You don't change the system, the system changes you.
  
• There really are people who hate other people because of the color of their skin.
  
• No matter how rich, cool, popular, skilled, etc. you become in your life, the memory of the stupid things you did while trying to make it through puberty will haunt you forever.
  
• There are people that not only are willing to hurt other people, they actually don't care whether or not they do.
  
• Some people hit children. With whatever they can lay their hands on.
  
• You will never be so smooth and suave that someone in this world won't laugh at you just at the very moment it hurts most.
  
• There are more fatal addictions than drugs and alcohol.
  

I'm sure none of this is a sruprise to you. Life is filled with unexpected disappointment and harsh reality.

But, then again, it is also filled with those moments that you can be suprised by joy. The sruprises aren't big. They are small, nearly insignificant things, like a rose growing through the crack in the concrete, and a prism of light on the subway wall. There is beauty and laughter and light all around, even in your darkness, if you can think small.