What advice would you give to your teenage self?
Response to writing prompt from WordPress
- Any knowledge acquired in school has severely diminishing returns in terms of practical life the more you progress beyond the 8th grade
- Completing school is not a reflection of your self-worth or your accomplishment as a human being
- If you are taught religious beliefs through the fear of the consequences of not practicing those beliefs, it will turn you into a shitty person that judges everyone else if they don’t comply with your beliefs
- Your body doesn’t have a mind of its own no matter what people with medical degrees want you to believe
- If you’re at peace with yourself, your body will be at peace with you
- Don’t let the demons of others define your self-worth
- People who bully you are only doing it because they’re jealous of you, and not because there is something wrong with you
- Don’t trust every person who appears to be sincere in advising you. Many just want to be heard without trying to understand what’s important to you.
- Dabble and experiment in everything that piques your interest about the world, but don’t lose yourself to dabbling, especially when it comes to relationships
- Your parents are not the same as your sibling’s parents, because your parents had a different reality before and after you came along. Each sibling changed their reality, each life experience changed their character, and they reacted differently to each of your siblings and you because they were different people at each stage of their lives. Not because they meant harm, or because you weren’t enough.
- Success is loving what you do. It’s not having a good job because you’re afraid of being poor or unsuccessful
- You treat others the way you feel about yourself, not the way they deserve to be treated. So be kind to yourself and learn to understand why you are who you are.
- Every life stage will cause you to instinctively respond in the way you saw your parents or significant others dealing with that life stage when you were little. It’s your only point of reference about how life works. Allow yourself to get it wrong, but own it when you do.
- Don’t stop at judging yourself or others. Instead, let judgement be your first step, and let compassion and understanding drive what you do with that judgement.
- There are too many variables in life for any single way of living to be the only way to live. Understand the wisdom behind the traditions that shape your teachings so that you can implement the wisdom in your life with understanding, rather than blindly following the tradition with fear.
- Just like you’re not raising yourself, your parents didn’t raise themselves, so allow them to be human in the same way that you want others to create space for you being human.
- Be consciously responsible with your heart, so that you’re not reckless with the hearts of others.
- Embrace life, don’t fear what the future may hold, and don’t let the past contaminate the present moment beyond the lesson that needs to be learnt from the past.
- Don’t just survive. LIVE!
Does this resonate?