What one piece of advice would you give your twenty year old self?

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I think 20 year old me made fewer stupid mistakes than pretty much any time before or since. So it's probably something lame like "don't go on holiday with your parents, it will rain for three weeks and be crap so you might as well work through it and earn loads of money to go somewhere fun instead, but if you do insist on going then at least try and pull that Dutch girl and make it worth your while".

Alternatively "hey, for fuck's sake eat something before you start drinking, you have no idea how much embarassment it will save you".

― Matt DC, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 17:04 (seventeen years ago) link

yes but couldn't you warn yourself of how to avoid future mistakes?

― Ms Misery, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 17:05 (seventeen years ago) link

Yes but then TIME PARADOX.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 17:06 (seventeen years ago) link

http://artfiles.art.com/images/-/Terminator-2-Magnet-C11769212.jpeg

― kenan, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 17:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Stay home after the Holy Cross game next year. Trust me, stay the fuck home.

― Bill Magill, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 17:27 (seventeen years ago) link

take advantage of it while you can: you're not gonna get better looking.

― remy bean, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 17:29 (seventeen years ago) link

It's weird that my life right now is more or less a total shambles but I can't think of a thing to tell my 20 yr old self.

― wanko ergo sum, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 17:36 (seventeen years ago) link

just move to mexico.

― the schef (adam schefter ha ha), Tuesday, 15 May 2007 17:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Brace yourself.

― Aimless, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 17:45 (seventeen years ago) link

"just go to a monastery" maybe

― wanko ergo sum, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 17:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Don't you do what I have done.

― M.V., Tuesday, 15 May 2007 18:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Take salsa dancing classes now.

― Rockist Scientist, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 18:18 (seventeen years ago) link

[i]Alternatively "hey, for fuck's sake eat something before you start drinking, you have no idea how much embarassment it will save you".[i]

you could tell your 30-yr-old self this as well (or however old you are these days)

― lex pretend, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 18:37 (seventeen years ago) link

the lotto numbers for the week of June 12, 2003 are...

― milo z, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 19:00 (seventeen years ago) link

GOLD!
Always believe in your soul
You've got the power to KNOW
You're indestructable
Always believe it!
because you are
GOLD!
Glad that you're bound to return
There's something I could have learned
You're indestructable
Always believe it!

― Abbott, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 19:44 (seventeen years ago) link

That song always cheers me up quick fast in a hurry.

― Abbott, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 19:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Face your fears, spend the extra year, and take ear training, solfege, and some theory. Do the choir, even. You wouldn't be selling out any more than you already are by taking guitar lessons. Writing essays about Sonic Youth albums is only going to get you so far with actually writing music.

― Sundar, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 20:50 (seventeen years ago) link

i would tell my 20 y.o. self to bet large on an improbable sporting event.

other than that, depressing thread mostly.

i don't really understand the 'buy property' thing. even apart from it being grimly materialistic.

― That one guy that quit, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 21:05 (seventeen years ago) link

i must admit i'd like to go back in time to 1984 and tell my nan that she should somehow scramble together the paltry sum the council were asking for her two bedroom flat in parsons green, because all her neighbours paid upwards of £500,000 for similar places. but it doesn't bother her much, nor me really.

― stevie, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 21:16 (seventeen years ago) link

In 3.5 years, MOVE TO DULUTH. Just trust me on this.

― dan m, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 21:24 (seventeen years ago) link

(that's my advice, no comment on real estate prices)

― dan m, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 21:24 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.ivebeentoduluth.net/i/i/shirt-01-s.jpg

― daria-g, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 21:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, me too. It's really great! Plus there's this girl... :/

― dan m, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 21:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Dear me: get out. Now. He is abusing you. Yes, he is. Stop denying it to everyone. He's mistreating you. Go now, change!

Thing is, a year after that I did anyway so doing it sooner won't have made much difference hehe.

― Trayce, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 21:40 (seventeen years ago) link

i don't really understand the 'buy property' thing. even apart from it being grimly materialistic.

Otherwise almost no-one will ever manage to own their own home?

― Mark C, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 21:49 (seventeen years ago) link

-get tested for ADD _now_.

-do ANYTHING to get a tech job on campus. student electronics asst, unpaid research kid, anything. sign up at the co-op office as soon as possible.

-ask out that one girl you see all the time at the snack shop in the library at the beginning of the year, not the end

-there's a band out there called the Descendents who are about to reform. Go find out about them.

-get a car on campus, any car. start driving to shows in detroit.

-begin volunteering at that campus radio station

-keep rowing nightly after you quit the crew team.

-Go to office hours every fucking day.

-start taking pictures. borrow your father's camera and take it everywhere.

-you know that one shop above the wannabe pub? that's a used CD shop. Start going there, and start attending the shows you see advertised on those flyers

people to email:
-the President repeatedly with dire warnings about how he should isolate himself from all female interns
-the Vice President with suggestions about how he should ditch all those beltway types, hang out more with that one governor of vermont, and do his little enviro powerpoint thingee on national tv
-Phil Hartman and tell him to divorce his wife as soon as fucking possible

― kingfish, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 22:08 (seventeen years ago) link

Don't worry so much about losing your virginity.

― Abbott, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 22:19 (seventeen years ago) link

mark: yeah kind of, but it's on the cheap credit never-never anyway, a bit. it would be nice to "own a home", of course, so i could smoke without fear and raise cats; but even if i'd got a mortgage aged twenty i wouldn't really have that: i'd just have a large monthly bill offset by the ability to borrow lots more money. (this current property bubble was underway when i was 20; if i were ten or 20 years older it'd be a different thing.)

― That one guy that quit, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 22:26 (seventeen years ago) link

as if that twenty year old would listen to what an old bitch had to say to her.

― stevienixed, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 22:27 (seventeen years ago) link

many things to say and only two years have passed!
- do not take so much acid, and do NOT sell it to your good friend with some mental issues against your better judgment. there's a reason why you feel weird about it.
- stop drinking and driving. like now, you clod.
- cut that fuckin beard and moustache off.

i would say, 'do not fall apart two years from now,' but i'm still trying to figure that one out.

― the table is the table, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 22:32 (seventeen years ago) link

do not take so much acid, and do NOT sell it to your good friend with some mental issues against your better judgment. there's a reason why you feel weird about it.

WAY WAY WAY too OTM. :{

― Abbott, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 22:38 (seventeen years ago) link

Also, don't hang out with people who have mental issues as bad as/worse than yours. And quit fucking smoking weed so much.

― Abbott, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 22:38 (seventeen years ago) link

I think I would actually listen to future me, after I got over the shock that future me lost like 50 lbs.

― Abbott, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 22:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Hang out w/mental issues people while shrooming/frying, that is. You'll eat their glasses off!

― Abbott, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 22:41 (seventeen years ago) link

You may be on a diet and successfully losing weight but you don't have to weigh your bran flakes before eating them, or count the number of raisins you consume, or eat two thirds of a pot of fromage frais.

Do not get totally completely utterly swept away insanely by the first man ever to kiss you one year later out of gratitude that someone finally has.

Cut your straggly witchy hair.

Do not buy clothes from Wallis. They are for women who work in offices, not students.

― ljubljana, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 23:09 (seventeen years ago) link

But you totally made the right decision about where to go on your looming year in Russia. It will rock your mind.

― ljubljana, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 23:11 (seventeen years ago) link

c'mon raggett, answer this thread already! ;-)

― Just got offed, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 23:18 (seventeen years ago) link

get a job

― deej, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 23:22 (seventeen years ago) link

Stop doing speed, it really is not very cool. In fact it's quite shameful.

― Drooone, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 23:26 (seventeen years ago) link

start doing speed, if it helps you get a job

― deej, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 23:28 (seventeen years ago) link

stop drinking now.

― lurex, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 23:31 (seventeen years ago) link

i don't know about myself, but when i see 17 and 18 year olds in my neighborhood congregating in a nervous, conspiratorial huddle RIGHT IN FRONT of the liquor store as their compatriot with the fake ID tries to score for them, I think "good work New York Public School system".

― sanskrit, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 23:34 (seventeen years ago) link

well this is nice and cheery!

start the amazon job three months earlier, before that one stock split!
ummm, maybe don't do heroin?
and don't cheat on that one girl, she is way too awesome, you dumbass!
and don't marry that other girl, okay.

― Mike McGooney-gal, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 23:43 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah, it's fun to have your friends push you around campus in a shopping cart all day cuz you're still drunk from yesterday and drinking, but you're taking some really fucking cool classes and you'll wish later that you had taken the opportunity to get some learnin' (especially the writing classes -- and come to think of it you should have maybe majored in English instead of German).

go now to sign up for a DJ slot at WESU - don't worry about acting nervous around that guy there you think is cute

if a guy reminds you of your step-parent (most likely in a brooding, stoned/drunk way), that shouldn't be your cue to be his puppy (but kudos on picking the songwriter over the programmer). Just cuz you made out doesn't mean you're now that someone's girlfriend. Even if you are somebody's girlfriend, hang out with other people too besides him.

No, the economy will not crash completely, thereby freeing you from your student loan obligation.

When you're done with college, move to Europe on your own if you want. You don't need to find a brooding/stoned/drunk European to take you there (and don't marry him; he's really mean and you're never going to fix him!)

― Maria :D, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 01:30 (seventeen years ago) link

"Relax. Stop being such an INTENSE DUDE."

― Sparkle Motion, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 01:36 (seventeen years ago) link

Start studying some Japanese.

― j-rock, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 01:42 (seventeen years ago) link

I would share this quote I heard (can't remember who...):

"When I was 20 I worried all the time what people thought about me. When I was 30 I decided to stop caring what people thought. When I turned 60 I realized that no one had ever been thinking about me!"

for 16-yr-old self, come out earlier and you will prob get to mess around with hot boys in school

Fuck yeah lex!! I wasted my tannest, cutest years feeling guilty and paranoid about liking boys, when I could've been shagging the whole swim team.

― King Kitty, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 01:51 (seventeen years ago) link

I wd also tell myself sure, move to Melbourne. Dont, however, do so for that guy you like. He's a basket case and will send you into a breakdown in four years time.

― Trayce, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 02:05 (seventeen years ago) link

Well, there are several things I would pass on:

Learn how to break up, and how to stay broken up.

You don't have to be right about everything music-related. Other people don't always like what you like, and it's totally okay.

Not everything needs a witty remark or a "funny" observation. You're funnier when you're not hell-bent on being the life of the party.

You could be getting laid exponentially more if you knew how to a) relax, b) not waste your time on girls who just don't like you that way and c) shut the fuck up more.

― Tantrum The Cat, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 02:07 (seventeen years ago) link

b and c should be tattooed on the insides of my eyelids.

― chicago kevin, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 02:09 (seventeen years ago) link

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