Back In Time

March 19, 2008 11:34 AM

If you could slip back in time and mutter a few key words of advice in the ear of your 17 year-old self, what would they be?
posted by It ain't over yet to education (20 comments total)

Previously
posted by adamrice at 11:35 AM on March 19

17 and 21 are worlds apart, so I'll answer.

I would have whispered to myself not to listen to the guidance counselor who told me that creative jobs weren't something people can make money at. In fact, sometimes I wish I could find him now and let him know that I listened too hard, messed up and that he was wrong.

And also, loosen up and have a little more fun.
posted by BridgetR at 11:38 AM on March 19

Sleep around more.
posted by OmieWise at 11:39 AM on March 19 [1 favorite]

Stay in school.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 11:39 AM on March 19

Yeah, that two roads diverging in a forest shit. Guess where that less traveled one leads. It leads back to the more traveled one, it's just a detour and that's why no one walks on it.
posted by 517 at 11:39 AM on March 19

"Stop following your heart and start following your fucking brain, bozo."
posted by breezeway at 11:40 AM on March 19 [1 favorite]

"You can't be popular and an honour roll student at the same time. Popularity is fleeting. An education lasts a lifetime. Your pick."
posted by LN at 11:40 AM on March 19 [1 favorite]

Life is really, really not that hard.
posted by Melismata at 11:40 AM on March 19

"It doesn't get any better, any easier, or any more fun. You may as well stop waiting."
posted by aramaic at 11:44 AM on March 19

"You're not nearly as smart as you think you are, and you're a dick to a lot of people. Also, your favorite band sucks."
posted by SpiffyRob at 11:44 AM on March 19 [1 favorite]

Travel every chance you get, even if it means missing a semester or eating nothing but ramen and sleeping on the floor.
posted by mds35 at 11:46 AM on March 19

It’s going to get a lot easier, a lot better, and much, much more fun. Be patient.
posted by bondcliff at 11:47 AM on March 19

if this year is the best year of your life, you're going to have a pretty sad life.
posted by thinkingwoman at 11:47 AM on March 19 [1 favorite]

Buy Yahoo. Short Nortel. plus every other stock movement for the last 20 years.
posted by GuyZero at 11:47 AM on March 19

Money's not important. Don't worry so much. Take care of yourself. Keep your head on straight. You are loved. Don't produce theater shows, it's thankless, horrid work. You can smoke pot later, do your homework now.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 11:47 AM on March 19

DTMFA and let him/her figure it out on his/her own time.

-> NEXT!
posted by mds35 at 11:48 AM on March 19

I'm 55... I hardly know where to begin... certainly my advice would not be "loosen up and have a little more fun." I think I wish I had seen the glass being half-full with my math ability and not half-empty. I am so old that computer science didn't really exist, but I was exposed to computers at a very young age, and the problem was I thought computer people were all PhDs in math, so even though I thought computers were fun, I never thought of it as something I could earn a living doing. Instead I wasted a lot of time thinking I would be a professional writer or a poet. I guess I wish I had thought more about skills I could learn that would actually help me earn a living.
posted by thomas144 at 11:48 AM on March 19

"You're beautiful the way you are."

I was so freaking bothered at 17 by not looking like a blonde prom queen
posted by pointystick at 11:48 AM on March 19

"Get thee to the psych clinic, stat. Also, don't bother dating P; he's a nice boy but you're a bit messed in the head and it won't really be a relationship and years later you'll wonder what was up with that."
posted by bettafish at 11:49 AM on March 19

All of this really doesn't matter.
posted by msali at 11:49 AM on March 19 [1 favorite]