Five things I would tell my 18 year old self…
At a tender age of 18, there was a lot going on in my life! I made some decisions like what course to apply to for further study, got my first job, learnt to drive and passed my exams to get into further study – see, I did say a lot!
But there are always things we did that we could have done differently – there always will be because the way I see it, that’s life. The ability to have a choice means that there will always be a ‘what if’ situation faced at some point!
Anyway, here are five things I would tell to my 18 year old self!
1. Stay open-minded: I personally think that being open-minded allows us to explore more in terms of ideas, ways of thinking and the way we do things. It allows us to see things in ways we may not have even considered before.
2. Embrace your differences – we are all unique and this is not a bad thing. There was a time that I wished I was the same as everyone else and, even though I know now that we are all unique, I wish I realised this earlier. It would have made some of my experiences much more pleasant!
3. You are allowed to like something even if someone else close to you doesn’t. Ok, so this ties in with the above point but I’ve decided that it deserves a space of its own. My taste in clothes, shoes, bags and pretty much everything has always been different from my cousins and some of my friends. When I was younger and I would ask for their opinions, say clothes for example, if they didn’t like it they would say ‘it’s very you’ (they still do this very often). I quickly learnt that ‘it’s very you’ actually means ‘I don’t like it but then I don’t like what you like,’ and often when this was the reply, I would put that item of clothing or whatever it was back. I wish then that I knew it was ok not to like what they liked. It is ok.
4. You know what you want to do; you always have and don’t forget it! At the time I couldn’t think of what I wanted to do in my life, but looking back now I realise I’ve always know. I’ve known since junior school when my work was displayed in one of the corridors – it was a proud moment for me. :)
5. It gets better – it has to.
Disclaimer: point number one is a personal opinion and the credibility of this idea is somewhat questionable, therefore do not use it as a reference unless you, yourself, feel the same way/have a credible source.
