Learning experience. What was a lesson you learned this year that changed you?

The Best Of 2009 Project continues. Today, we look at the Learning experience of this year. I'd list the finalists but there are oh, so many. It's not hard to pick a winner at all. The one lesson I learned that has truly changed me is:

Whether its love-gone-wrong, friendships gone sour, grudges, hard feelings, mistakes, regrets or anything you're holding onto that is causing you negativity, I've learned to let it go. I have always taken pride in my ability to hang on. I've hung on so hard for so long, trying to grasp to the idea that one day everything would work itself out. I've held onto people thinking that wanting them in my life would make them want to be there. I've held onto unlikely expectations that only caused me disappointment when they didn't work out.

It wasn't until I began to let things go that I felt a difference. The more I let go, the more relieved I became. It wasn't until I let go all of my grudges, unrequited love, unrealistic expectations and lost loves that I truly felt whole. Ironic, isn't it? In order to feel whole, I had to lose things, not gain them. I like to think of it as losing the things I don't have control over to make room for happier, greater and more fulfilling things.