Life Lessons & Things I Wish I Had Known

by Jasmina T. Boulanger

Foreword

Life is short and uncertain;
let us spend it as well as we can.
Samuel Johnson

As I approach a significant birthday, I reflect on my story. It has not been a smooth or easy sail through life, but it has been my journey, and I have learned a lot. I keep learning each day. And I want to share some of the lessons I have absorbed.

“If I knew then what I know now,” would things have been different? Perhaps. Knowing something academically is very different than the knowledge gained through life experience. Each experience deepens perception and understanding. As does time. In comparison, knowing something because our parents told us or because we read it in a book is more superficial. It is just another fact or idea that may or may not stick. And, then there is the learning and experience we get by how we react to events. The most brilliant 16-year-old will react differently to a setback than a 50-year-old who has survived many setbacks.

Aristotle teaches that the best end or goal of life is happiness. According to Aristotle, happiness is the result or consequence of acting with virtue and consists in achieving, through the course of a whole lifetime, all the goods or good things—health, wealth, knowledge, friends—that lead to the perfection of human nature and to the enrichment of human life. Happiness is an active process that requires us to make choices, some of which may be very difficult.

Each action we take has its own unique consequences. Making good choices and accepting the consequences of our choice will, I believe, lead to a good life filled with satisfaction and tranquility. A good place to be.

65 pages, softbound, 2025
ISBN: 9781964233215

Jasmina T. Boulanger is a lawyer and economist. She was the youngest graduate of the University of Wisconsin, at the age of 17, and majored in economics and minored in history and Slavic languages. Subsequently, she earned an M.S. in economics and a J.D. in law. Her career has taken her from Washington, D.C. to California and to many parts of Europe. She has lectured in Law and Economics at the University of Southern California and Claremont McKenna College. Jasmina currently serves as the Chairman of International Orthodox Christian Charities. Previously, she served as the vice president of the Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), president of the Serbian Unity Congress, and a trustee of Assumption University. She also served on the Pasadena, California Utility Advisory Commission, Planning Commission, and Pasadena Symphony board. The Patriarchate of the SOC awarded her the medal of St. Sava (2nd degree) in 2017. Jasmina lives in Southern California with her dog Millie, where she enjoys hiking and cooking for friends when she is not traveling or writing.