I'm sipping a cup of cold latte, thinking about the year that has passed before I turned 28; I'm still shaking my head at how unfavorable the last one year and a couple of months have been, but one thing remains true and that is bad days are impermanent; at some points last year, I thought I was going to die (a bit literally) out of stress, exhaustion, pressure, and sadness, but hey, I'm still here, sipping my most favorite beverage in the world and chuckling while recalling all the dramas I've had.

I'm alive.

I've always been the happy one, but the stress of being a start- up kinda' sucked the happy energy out of me (because that's just how it is!); I know I'll always be the happy person, but like everybody else, I get sad, frustrated, and down sometimes.

Allow yourself to be sad.

This is an important lesson I learned before turning 28; at many points, since I turned a new leaf in my life (aka entrepreneurship), I've been quite grumpy, down, sad, haggard, and just tired, not to mention my plans for this year taking a backseat just made things sadder; a lot would advice me to cheer up, to smile through the pain, to be thankful, to be yadda, yadda, yadda; for the world, I should be someone who isn't sad, considering the many blessings I've had and continually receive.

Fake it 'til you make it; I've learned that that doesn't ring true for emotions; turning 28 taught me one of the most important things and that is if you are sad, then don't force yourself to be happy; I'm not encouraging you to wallow in sadness, but rather acknowledge it; give yourself time to be sad because you learn from this feeling too; sadness is not your enemy; it's a feeling that is part of you so don't resist it; happiness can be the worst and that is if it doesn't come naturally.

At 28, I've learned that acknowledging sadness is the path to finding real happiness and appreciating it more.

So if you're sad now, don't worry; stay in there for a while, acknowledge it, and learn from it; and then genuine happiness will come in time.