- If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience…I will dispense this advice now.
- Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.
- You’re not as fat as you imagine.
- Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
- Do one thing everyday that scares you.
- Sing.
- Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.
- Floss.
- Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.
- Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
- Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.
- Stretch
- Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.
- Get plenty of calcium.
- Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.
- Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.
- Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.
- Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.
- Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.
- Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.
- Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.
- Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
- Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on.
- Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.
- Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
- Travel.
- Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
- Respect your elders.
- Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.
- Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.
- Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.
- But trust me on the sunscreen…" - Baz Luhrmann
"So I grew up around this man who sat at his desk in the study all day and wrote books and articles about the places and people he had seen and known. He read a lot of poetry. Sometimes he traveled. He could go anyplace he wanted with a sense of purpose. One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and explore. Another is that writing motivates you to look closely at life, at life as it lurches by and tramps around."
"Often what I do at this point, as the panic mounts [at writing something massive] and the jungle drums begin beating and I realize that the well has run dry and that my future is behind me and I'm going to have to get a job only I'm completely unemployable, is to stop. First I try to breathe [...]. I finally notice the one-inch picture frame that I put on my desk to remind me of short assignments. It reminds me that all I have to do is write down as much as I can see through a one-inch picture frame. [...] E. L. Doctorow once said that 'writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.' You don't have to see where you're going, you don't have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice about writing, or life, I have ever heard." - Anne Lammont
Sometimes, I just need a bit of perspective. Sometimes, I get caught up in what my life looks like, what I've accomplished, where I'm going and how I'm going to get there. Sometimes, I manage to sit back and just enjoy where I am. This is usually during the day, when I'm busy with something, anything, be it making cheesecake or taking a shower or playing a game with a friend. There are even some moments when I think about what I've done and feel rather proud. Liek when I'm looking through pictures, or tell a story about a grand adventure, or have someone tell me they wish they'd "done something like that." But there are moments, usually when I'm laying in bed, trying to sleep or driving alone in my car, where I can't stop worrying. I worry about who I am, how I will survive, what my life looks like, and how I'm never going to have this or do that. Times when I can not shut my brain off, can't stop the clenching panic gripping my chest. Where the fact that I have never been in a really long relationship, never lived somewhere long enough to really feel that it's mine, never been in a job that I felt was my future, overshadows anything I might have done.
Those are the times I need to remember I am not alone. I have done many things, and as far as life goes, I am doing fairly well. I have seen a lot of the world. I have worked in many jobs and had many great adventures. I have friends that I love incredibly dearly and love me equally in return. I am still young and pretty and smart and have a future. I still have time to own a house, get married, find a career I will retire in. And even if I never do those things, my life is actually pretty good; no, actually, my life is pretty great.
I will be spending this summer not working at something I'm going to do forever. I will be making little money and working hard. But I will also get to be outside in the sun, meeting new people, working for the future, and making memories that I know will last forever. I think if I heard someone else talking about their life doing the same things I was doing, I would be a bit jealous. And I need to be able to remind myself of that fact when I am laying awake, feeling like a waste. Overall, my life, though it may not be what anyone else's really looks like, or what I thought it would look like ten years ago, is a great life. I am blessed. I have a great life.
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