I am turning 18 tomorrow. Any life advice for me
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This was reported twice for not being a shower thought. The reporters are correct, it’s not strictly a shower thought.
But thinking about getting older is something we all do in the shower, for multiple reasons :)
Looks like people are mostly enjoying it so I’ll let it stay for now.
Thinks about 18 year olds in the shower
Mods get them!
I think that’s legal… Barely
Break stuff and figure things out, take chances and have fun. You’ve got time. You’ll figure it out.
wisdom is often wasted on the elderly. youth is fleeting as are most the mistakes you will make in life at this point.
the following advice is fitting unless you’re doing either of these two things:
- making babies
- taking a life (especially your own)
Live the three truths
- you will always make mistakes
- you will always hurt those you love
- you will always have regrets.
the older you get the harder it is to recover from these truths. Live your life to your requirements. By the time you’re closing in on your 30s, you should start to settle down and find yourself a quiet place to build your life for when you’re in your 50s or 60s.
in your 30s seek out happiness and contentment. this will be your foundation to accept your regrets and mistakes. own the mistakes you made along the way, accept them like you would a bruise or blemish on your body. in time they will heal, if only you accept them and move on.
in your 40s harvest your happiness and contentment. accept there are things you cannot do not because you haven’t or couldn’t but because you shouldn’t.
in your 50s store your happiness and contentment with the knowledge that nobody can take it from you, it’s yours and yours alone.
60+ feed your soul from your stores, using the memories you made along the way. depending on the life you have led, share in new memories with those around you. celebrate their successes as your successes.
if you’re lucky you will build lasting relationships along the way and will have many fond memories. you will inevitability have bad memories as well, but such is life.
personally I lost every single friend I have ever had. I never really recovered from it and now I have no friends. It’s one of many regrets, but I never let it spoil my happiness and contentment. I find fulfillment by other means like hobbies, crafting, and family.
I never wanted to be married or have kids, but it feels as if what you think is important today changes by tomorrow. don’t fight it, because you’ll only be fighting yourself.
life is full of surprises, learn to roll with the punches and adapt to the world. if you don’t, life will fucking kill you.
Take care of your teeth. Many loves will come and go in your 20s and maybe even 30s, but if its a life partner you want try focusing on yourself and they’ll appear out of thin air. Friends are important but not as important as inner peace. If a job offer 401k start investing as much as possible as soon as possible. Everyone is going through their own crazy messed up life so be kind. Puff, puff pass and enjoy your 20s as much as possible while not losing sight of your goals. Goals are EVERYTHING, set the achieve them and set them again. Heartbreak and death are integral parts of being human. It’s important to sit with and process the pain as long as YOU see fit. Death will come for someone you love someday, don’t let drugs or alcohol be your medicine
Specific advice like “save your money” and “enjoy your money while youre young” and “focus on education” and “forget education get a job fast” are all too nuanced and will likely get ignored anyway.
This “song” pretty much covers the important stuff.
DONT DO IT!!
THERE’S NO TURNING BACK
Do not break the weekend safety brief.
- Do NOT add to the population.
- Do NOT subtract from the population
- Do NOT end up in the newspaper, hospital or jail.
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- IF you do end up in jail, establish dominance quickly.
Lift wieghts and or do some other physical activity. Its good to have two hobbies; a mental one and a physical one. The muscle you build now will be with you for the rest of your life, and its mucb easier to do it now than when you are middle aged like me.
Dont focus too hard on girls, just live your life and enjoy the experiences and relationships you build with all people; everything else will follow.
Travel, with a focus on the physically taxing things that are harder to do when you are older.
Invest what money you can, compound interest is real and it is the path to wealth (eventually).
I would encourage more than 2 hobbies. It can be very difficult to feel satisfied if for some reason you can’t engage in one of your hobbies (I speak from experience).
As someone who wishes someone had told me… Adults don’t know what we are doing either. It took me way too long to realize I’m not an imposter pretending to be an adult, we are all just kind of winging it.
As you grow older you’ll have seen more stuff and it will be a little easier, but I can attest I don’t have a clue what’s for dinner, just like I don’t know what new headache the next meeting will bring. Live life for life’s sake, the clock will keep ticking whether you’re ready or not.
Money is very easy to spend, but Money is so very hard to make. Be cautious with your money
Your brain still isn’t fully developed into an adult one. Another half decade or so should equip you with the rest. Take care of it!
Open an IRA (or your country’s equivalent), invest as much as you and still afford to live. A tiny little discomfort in the beginning isn’t the worst thing. That money will grow tax free for year until you retire. The more you get in early, the more compounding works in your favor.
Who you are now, isn’t likely who you’ll be in 6 years. You’ll change a lot over the next few years as you become an adult. Legally, becoming an adult is the difference of a day. But actually maturing into an adult takes time and effort. Yes effort, you’ll meet plenty of adults who cling to their highschool self.
I don’t know if alcohol is still placed on a pedestal like it was in my teens, but alcohol isn’t that great. It’s an expensive poison humans can sorta metabolize. It can taste good, but moderation is key. The point isn’t to get drunk. As an adult who can drink anytime I please, is generally would rather just have water.
Now is a great time to get into a fitness routine.
Some of the other comments touch on it, but usually mixed with other items, so let me reiterate. Your metabolism is going to slowly wane. Keep an eye on your weight and reduce your calorie intake now. It’s really easy to think “meh, so I’m 10 extra pounds, I can easily lose that later” but by later you will be 15 extra pounds. If you’re gaining muscle, that’s one thing, but keep yourself from gaining fat as much as you can.
don’t make a kid
