i first heard this song (you heard this song, we heard this song) the month before my middle-school graduation… and here i sit, college-sweatshirted and adult in most “legal” senses of the word–and i’m just now barely ready to chomp these palapable bits of pertinent advice.
i’ll dispose of his disposal of this advice… uhm, now.
- Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve 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 are 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 bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.
- Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.
- 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.
- 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.
- Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.
- Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.
- Understand that friends come and go, but with a 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 who knew you 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.
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very nice