Advice to my 18 year-old self

It’s a cheap device, a little facile perhaps, but I decided to give it a whirl. I was reading Marie Clair on the weekend (the UK edition) and the headline of one of the articles was “What I would tell my 18 year-old self”. “Now that’s a blog topic,” I thought triumphantly. I didn’t read M-C, not wanting to bias myself—and I expect the writer of that article was someone spectacular and fascinating—but never mind. I decided the idea had legs.

I cannot quite picture myself at 18. But what follows are the thoughts that drift to the surface and break through into the light as I cast around in the cloudy waters of the past. I suppose in many ways I have a sense of my who I was then, and my advice is not so much an expression of regret as it is a statement of possibilities, of disdain at wasted time, of frustration at opportunities not quite embraced. And there’s a lightness here (I don’t want to take myself too seriously), and a touch of the wistful. 

1. Study more; party less. Opportunity—real opportunity—is fleeting.

2. Learn to play guitar.

3. Read Plato’s Republic, as much Shakespeare as you can, Homer’s Odyssey, Virginia Woolf, the Romantic poets and T.S. Eliot.

4. Commit to memory at least one complete poem.

5. Follow your heart.

6. Don’t wear that tartan taffeta dress to JPT’s 21st b-day party: it’s hideous. 

7. Keep all the mixed tapes that people make for you.

8.Don’t blow dry your hair or try to straighten it. (The curl will win eventually anyway.) 

9. Wear mini skirts while you can.

10. Stay in touch with people you knew when you were a kid.

11. Don’t skip your French lab. You’ll be sorry one day that you can’t speak another language.

12. Don’t hang around with people who make you feel bad. Period. 

13.Learn to drive standard.

14.Spend less; save more.

15.Take more photos.

16. Believe that you’re fine just the way you are.

17. Live abroad.

18. Remember that sensitivity is a strength, not a weakness.

19. Don’t worry. It all worked out in the end.

20. Take the road less travelled. And that will make all the difference. 

Comments

[Mary Lynn]

"Don’t worry. It all worked out in the end."

I've wished so many times I could go back and just tell myself that one thing.

Great list. :-)