Some of my friends have high school aged children who are now moving on to be college aged children. Or, as they prefer: young adults. However the parents may feel about their kids now moving into adulthood, I think its an even scarier time for the kids. Being an adult seems like an awesome thing when you're younger - adults can stay up as late as they like, they can drive, they can (seemingly) do whatever they want! - but actually becoming an adult changes the game completely. These kids will quickly find that, for as "grown up" as they have felt the last few years, and for all the talk of kids maturing more rapidly these days, they are now weighed down with whole new levels of responsibility and demands.
Not that I have all the answers - far from! - or that I am wise and learned - not even! - but here are a few things that I wish someone had told me when I stepped from high school to college:
- Do it. Whatever opportunity that you're being presented with that takes you outside of the box or away from your comfort zone, do it. Travel to Burundi for a year and live in a tent? Go. Backpack across Mexico? Find your passport. Spend the summer traveling across the U.S. in a motorhome with a garage band from your hometown? Take a pillow! There is no race to finish college - school will still be available to you when you get back. People of all ages go to college, not just kids in the early twenties. Use these years that you have - before you enter your career path, get married, start a family, etc - to search, explore, broaden and expand.
- Live simple. Travel light. Avoid credit cards as though they were a terminal illness. Don't tie yourself down with houses and car payments. Drive an old junker, shack up with a gaggle of roommates and keep your possession to a minimum. The sooner you begin acquiring "nice things", the sooner you have to find work to pay for them. That's not to say you can't have a nice outfit for special occasions - just make sure you buy it with cash and don't be afraid to let it go if you need the space for something else. (Or if a friend needs a nice outfit more than you do.)
- Be a good friend. You are never too busy to go to dinner with your friends. There is never anything more important than spending an afternoon talking to your friend when they need you. And there is nothing in this world that should come between you and your friends - not money, not spouses/partners, not work, nothing. Your friends are what will get you through everything in life. Keep them.
- Learn to cook. You don't have to be Julia Childs or Guy Fieri, but you should know how to make basic things. (And once you conquer basic things, you'll soon find that fancy things are actually pretty simple, too.) Go learn to hard boil an egg, how to make rice in a skillet, bake a potato, make bread from scratch and grill a steak. Its cheaper and healthier than fast food, and they are just good skills to have.
- Take care of your body. You won't be 18 years old forever, even if it seems like it right now. Sooner or later, all that living fast, drinking till you throw up and forgetting to use sunscreen is going to catch up to you. I'm definitely not saying live a prudent and modest lifestyle; I'm just saying you need to actually slather on some of that suntan lotion and maybe get an extra hour of sleep. Know your body and the way it looks and feels. If something changes and no longer feels or looks right, go get it checked with a doctor. Drink lots of water, eat good food, always wash your face before you go to bed and go take a walk around the block every day. Your mother wasn't just harassing you all these years - she was trying to warn you.
Most importantly, go have some damn fun! Half of the things you'll find yourself worrying over don't have any importance. It's not always easy to remember that - so make yourself a note.
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