What are the things you have learned or are learning? Was it hard to learn those lessons? Why?

A couple years ago when i was going through a dark period in my life when i was in the mental hospital it hit me that i don't want to die and my family and friends do care about me so much more than i can comprehend. I obviously know my parents love me but even if you have a good life and have a well functioning family you can still feel suicidal.

3 weeks after I got out was Christmas Eve and my whole family on my dad's side came over and i could tell they knew because they were really nice to me and when they talked to me they sounded worried about me and I remember when one of my cousins were leaving him and his wife said to me "If you need anything, you can call either of us, we love you". After that experience i know they all love me and it would be very selfish to kill myself.

I've learned a lot of things that i've learned from everything i've been through. The second thing i've learned is my motto. Quality over quality. I realize throughout my experience with bullying and envying popular girls is that it's better to have friends that really truly care about you even if it's just a couple people in your life but how you can really tell who are really there for you and who is just taking advantage of you. I actually was really self-conscious and down on myself when i wanted so badly to be accepted by the "popular" girls because at the time i didn't have many friends and i thought the only way to be accepted was to be popular.

Honestly that's a load of crap. When i'm at school i still do have feelings of not being good enough because i don't have a million friends but honestly i absolutely love the few friends that i have even if they both live in a different state but it's more rewarding to have a handful of people in your life who you know would die for you rather than having to wonder who will be there beside your death bed.

What have you learned throughout your life?