I'm 34 years old, this is my advice for anyone around the age of 20.
1) Follow your dream, don't let anyone tell you it's a waste of time or energy or that it is a dead end if it is something you love in your heart & soul. The next 30 years is a long time to spend doing something that you find unfulfilling because the money is good, don't settle for the job that pays the most until you have a family, mortgage, car payment, etc., then you may have to suck it up & take one for the team...but until then, chase your dream.
2) Go to school, the year break I took coming out of high school turned out to be 10, the first four of which were spent partying it up with people my own age who were in school. The only difference is they had a nice useful piece of paper at the end of that fourth year. It felt good to be working & having some money while all the poor students were scrounging, but they are definately in a better financial situation today
3) The large circle of friends you have today will diminish drastically, of that circle only 1 or 2 are as close to you as you think they are, it's harder to make friends (true friends) as you get older, still possible but harder, try to stay in touch with some of the closer friends you have today, you could miss them later if you don't. People change as they age, if you try to reconnect with an old friend you may learn that they are not the same person (or worse, exactly the same person, the last thing a 40 year old wants, is a 40 year old friend who thinks he's 20), try to evolve as a person with your friends. At the very least stay in touch.
4) Do everything in your power to maintain the body you have today, play sports, try to eat healthy, be an athlete! Lay off the booze, dope & smokes, as much as you can! I know we all have our vices, moderation is key, there is no need to be indulging yourself any more than a night or two a week, and even then there's no need to go overboard, a little buzz is sufficient, you will learn as you get older how unattractive a slobering idiot really is, there's no need to get hammered, there really isn't.
5) Learn to be diplomatic in all your relationships. There is a very thick political undercurrent to everything you do. I was completely oblivious to this at 20, I thought things evened out in the end, they don't. The rules for just about anything you encounter are open for interpretation, rules can be easily bent to help a friend, its better to be that friend than the one being left out in the cold because the rules are being bent to help someone else. This is true at work with job positions, in your family when someone is giving away a piece of furniture, as you're reading this a friend of yours is sitting on a spare ticket to game three of the semi-finals. No one wants to do anything for someone who is a drag to be around. We all have a limit, you can't avoid being confrontational all the time, but you should make an effort to minimize it as much as possible. Don't think that your position at work, in the family, or in your social circle is etched in stone, it's not, people skip the line all the time, most of the time you wont even know you were skipped.
6) Don't underestimate yourself, I'm not going to say you can accomplish anything because you can't...but damn near near it! Even if you can't reach your ultimate goal, you'll never regret an honest effort, you could regret a poor effort or not trying for the rest of your life! I'm telling you, if your goal is reasonable, and by reasonable I mean nearly anything you choose, you can do it!
If someone could have run these points by me at 20 (I say as if I would have listened, which I wouldn't have) I would be leading a more fulfilled life today. All this sounds like I'm leading a difficult life, I'm really not, I have the most wonderful wife & 3 kids, my financial situation is getting better & better, I'm healthy and physically fit, but in the last 5 or 6 years a lot of time and effort has been expended by me trying to straighten out my situation which was caused by a lack of action on my part in my 20's.
...and a personal piece of advice to myself at 20:
Do not ...and I cant find words to adequately emphasize how important this is ...DO NOT believe the red-headed girl at Lollapalooza who says she dosn't have a boyfriend...He's massive, and well trained in some form of martial arts!
Comments
Never let anyone steal your dream! and Lollapalooza ----- lol
by Alatea on April 29th, 2006
Listen to your inner voice always, everyone's got one.
by Carmella on May 7th, 2006
Great answer!
by Answers101 on July 23rd, 2006
I'm 23, a semester from graduating college and that answer helped with a lot of insecurities about the future and real world ---thanks
by BobSaccamano-is-back on October 29th, 2006
WOW I'm 34 and totally agree with this answer
by wobalome on March 16th, 2007
excellent. you pretty much said it all!
by annabethj on March 16th, 2007
I'm 31, and ditto to everything you said!
by Amy on March 16th, 2007