I've learned that helping those you love when they need it, no matter if what they're asking for is not something you'd prefer to do, strengthens the relationship, and increases your tolerance for doing what needs doing, rather than just what you feel like doing. This is a helpful capacity in your own life.
If you care enough to learn about something, even though it seems like an impossibly large or esoteric subject to comprehend, and you spend enough time on it, you will eventually learn enough where you feel like you can grasp it. It may take several years to reach this stage, though. So have patience with yourself.
I don't know if there's as much truth to this as I think there is, but it seems like I reached a stage several years ago (I'm in my mid-40's) where I noticed there are a LOT of people who think they understand an issue fully when they're far from that, and there's no way in hell you're going to convince them otherwise. I also realized that many people my age are like this. As the years have passed, this feeling hasn't gone away, and I've learned to understand that I'm better off not beating my head against a wall. I'm just going to have to adapt to the rules these people come up with in the best way I can (or find some way to avoid the disaster), because I'm in the minority...
Sometimes my friends used to ask me rhetorically when I was younger, "Do you believe everything you read?" As I got older, I understood what they were talking about. I don't believe everything I read, even if it seems to provide a complete narrative of events, individuals, groups, and/or phenomena, because I understand better how people can fool themselves very elaborately. BTW, narratives are not a reliable form of knowledge. It takes a lot of work on your part to get a good understanding of a subject from them, because you need to cross-check sources, even if people try hard to get the story right. Analytic sources are better, though I'm trying to acquire a taste for scientific sources (I have some experience with such, but I'd like to make them more of a mainstay). This relates to the item above.
I've wondered whether learning history was a waste of time, except as a nice hobby. I feel like I understand the world a bit because of my knowledge of it, but when it comes to influencing decisions that matter in the world, I might as well be ignorant. What I think I know about how we got to where we are today, and human nature, doesn't matter one jot in the scheme of things. Most Americans are not interested in the conversation.



I have very little control over my own life, and I've learned to accept that. This can seem very threatening, but there's another side to it that's very liberating, because it encourages you to take risks. I don't worry as much about "what might happen." I do what feels fulfilling to me. I'll deal with the consequences of my decisions as they come.
My life didn't turn out anything like I thought it would when I was a teenager. I remember we did an exercise in school where we "envisioned" our future selves with pictures we clipped out of magazines and pasted on a piece of paper. We also wrote a bit about what our lives would be like, and what we saw ourselves doing. Nothing like that...
I've learned to value those qualities of myself that when I was younger others thought were "weird," and which I suppressed, because I thought what others thought of those aspects mattered. They don't. Embracing those qualities has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, and I feel more comfortable with who I am now than when I was younger. I have noticed, though, that embracing them has been socially isolating, because what I've really done is embraced my uniqueness, and what I truly value in my pursuits. As the years progress, this isolation may change, and I would welcome that. For now, that's the price I've been willing to pay for the reward.
I hit a stage a few years ago where I realized some opportunities I missed, because of the life circumstances I lived through, and some decisions I and my mother made when I was young, and I really regretted it. It was mostly realizing my mortality, and that I only have so many years left. I came to realize, though, that my circumstances could've been worse, and I should be so thankful for what happened instead.
Your body can't take everything you throw at it as you get into your 30s, so take care of it. The first thing to go for me was my digestion. Eating protein-rich foods gave me cramping and gas, and increased the level of tension in my body. I later learned that this was common for my age group. Enzyme supplements help with that a lot.
I got to a point, about when I hit 40, when I could see that I tend to give myself my own best gifts. I don't mean that I go shopping, and I find just the right thing. I mean that so far, I've done a better job of satisfying my own desires than anyone else has. So, things like birthdays and Christmas are more humble affairs. When people ask me what I'd like for a present, I usually don't have an answer. I don't feel like I need much beyond what I already have.