Friday, June 20, 2008

That time of year . . .

We've spent nearly every weekend of the last month and a half at either graduations (college and high school) and weddings. It's just that time of year, and I've been listening to a lot of speeches giving wise (and, IMO, not so wise) advice to the kids.

So I was thinking . . . what's the one thing I really wish my seventeen (or twenty, or twenty-three) year old self knew? (Not that I would have listened back then, but I never said I was wise.)

And this is what I wish I'd known: to stop worrying so much about what anybody else thinks of you, because the truth is that 99.9% of the time NOBODY'S THINKING ABOUT YOU. Because they're all way too busy thinking about themselves and their own problems. Anybody who has time to judge you, your looks or your choices or anything else, isn't someone whose opinion you need to worry about anyway.

So what about you? What would you most want to tell your eighteen year old self?

Susie

11 comments:

Cindy Gerard said...

Geez, Susie, where you and your sage advice when I was 18?
I wish someone had told me what you just said.
And now I have to go duck for cover as we are getting hit with another thunderstorm. Enough already!!

Anonymous said...

Great advice!

I wish someone had managed to convince me that life is not about the SHOULDS.

And, you know, TO RELAX about stuff.

Anonymous said...

My advice to myself would have been, screw it, just do it!

catslady said...

What you guys said and I'll add - be true to yourself. I spent my whole life doing things everyone else wanted me to do.

Estella said...

Ditto, Catslady.

Debra Dixon said...

"Go to LA, fetch coffee for producers and work your way up to Producer."

Seriously.

I'm much too entrenched in the life I've built to start over, but good advice would have been to look up and not just dream big, dream *different.*

Lori T said...

I would have liked to be given this advice and to be smart enough to actually follow...listen to your parents...they actually do know what they are talking about and really do have your best interests at heart.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Karin- my advice would be to just do things, if you want to try things,go places, see something- just do it!!

Fedora said...

That's a biggie, Susie--I'm trying hard to teach my kids that now--to try things without worrying so much about how you look to other people because they're awfully busy for the most part worrying about how they look to you! I'm not sure it's working, but if they get it a bit more than I did, it ought to help! :)

Unknown said...

I would probably say two things:
Who cares what other people think; steer by your own stars. Make your life your own.
(and)
You are only as big as your dreams, so dream big.

So much potential is wasted by people who are told to BE SENSIBLE.

Helen Brenna said...

Explore. NOW!