Five more things I wish I’d known when I was a teenager:
1. Body odor. You have more of it than you think you do. The only reason you think those two-days-worn pants don’t stink is because you can’t smell your own odor. About the most you can do without olfactory offense is recycle a shirt one more day, and you can really only get away with that if you wore an undershirt. And when you’re a teenager, it’s even worse.
2. Body hair. Yes, it’s acceptable to groom your four-inch-long leg hair. If you, like me, are afflicted by body hair which has a tendency to grow longer than the hair on your head, it’s smart to visit a mirror now and again with a trimmer or a razor in hand. Your significant other will thank you for it, and it only takes a few minutes every few weeks to keep looking studly as a pot-bellied human rather than a pot-bellied half-man, half-gorilla.
3. Don’t touch your face without washing your hands first. If you can avoid sticking your bacterial-laden fingers into the various mucous membranes of your face, you’ll dodge a lot of infections. If you really need to dig that crusty out of your eye right now, grab a tissue.
4. Do what you love to do, no matter how much other people, including parents, discourage you from doing it, and no matter how much it costs. Had I followed my love for aviation as a teenager, I’m certain I’d be doing something different as a career today. Not that I don’t love what I do — UNIX administration is challenging and pays well — but it’s not my passion. I still would have stayed away from the military unless I had no other choice.
5. Don’t let other people define your success. Everybody else is wrapped up in their own lives, and you are just a part of their picture. Their central focus is themselves, and validation from them about you is much more about making themselves feel good than about making you successful.
4.
All my young life I wanted to be a registered nurse because my sister-in-law was a nurse and I idolized her. After I graduated from high school I got a job as a nurses aid and that cured me of ever wanting to see blood and guts and bed pans again!! When I realized my life’s goal was not going to work for me, I gave up on any career. Because I was so narrow minded and stubborn I didn’t think there could be any other career, in this world, as rewarding. There is nothing I can do to change the past so I’m concentrating on the here and now. Actually, now I am involved in developing talents in areas of interest to me such as music and genealogy and quilting. Through the years times have changed and so have my interests.
Medicine et al.
Yeah, I told my parents I wanted to be a doctor. Then I started researching what one actually had to do to be a doctor, and went “Ugh, not for me.” Then I thought I’d try lawyer, and figured out exactly what requirements there were for passing the Utah bar, and “ugh, not for me” again.
So I finally realized that I didn’t need some high-profile career to have personal job satisfaction… it just took having some job which paid well enough to support my family and my hobbies, and I could pursue what I loved outside of the career. That’s working for me right now 🙂
That’s the cool thing about time. When I was a teenager, I wanted to be a rock-and-roll star. The reality of stardom and life on the road is not nearly so rosy, and the reality for most musicians is life in near-obscurity. Yeah, I’m glad I passed. I do wish I’d write and record a bit more music, though. Too many responsibilities and other hobbies right now, I’m afraid.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Nurse..
Ha! I never wanted to be an RN, somehow I became one. Irony is ironic.
Visit the Official Justin Timpane Website Music, Acting, and More! http://www.timpane.com
5 more things..
1) Stop Eating!! I went from 170 to 225 between 1994 and 2000. I have gotten back down to 170 finally, but my body image is now all screwed up.
2) See those movies, read those books, take those vacations! Man, I understand Matt a lot more now. I had a lot I wanted to do that I could have.. now I cant get to that next episode of Lost. babies are wonderful, but whew!!
3) Don’t bash things. I bashed rap and Buffy a lot! I now listen to Rap and Love Buffy. This is true of a lot of things that I used to bash. Making your dislike of an unkown apparent leads to eaten crow.
4) Wine. I regret all those years wasted on beer and cocktails. Wine is Awesome.
5) Don’t vote Republican. I voted for W twice. I thought I was doing the right thing. Turns out that although I despise a lot of what the ACLU does, and I am Pro Life – other than that, I’m pretty liberal. And, even if I was Rush Limbaugh, this is the worst President in 50 years, if not ever. I am embarassed to have supported him, and like in #3, I have to hear “He was YOUR guy”.
Visit the Official Justin Timpane Website Music, Acting, and More! http://www.timpane.com